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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 




IN FIFTEEN STUDIES 



GEORGE L. ROBINSON, Ph.D. (Leipzig) 



Professor Old Testament Literature and Exegesis 
McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago 



New York 

Young Men's Christian Association Press 
1910 




5" 



Copyright, 1910, by 
The International Committee of 
Young Men's Christian Associations 



UCLA 26 186 



TO 

Mrs. Cyrus H. McCormick. 



WHOSE KINDLY FRIENDSHIP HAS BEEN A CONSTANT 
INSPIRATION FOR MANY YEARS, THIS LITTLE 
VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 



Introduction 13 

Study One — Isaiah's Life and Writings 

1. Isaiah's Personal History 19 

2. Isaiah's Call to be Prophet 19 

3. Isaiah's Political and Spiritual Horizon. ... 21 

4. Isaiah's Character and Patriotism 22 

5. Isaiah's Literary Genius and Style 23 

6. Traditions Concerning Isaiah's Martyrdom. . 23 

7. Selected Literature 24 

Study Two — Analysis of the Book of Isaiah 

1. The Six General Divisions of the Book 27 

2. Chapters 1-12, Prophecies Concerning Judah 

and Jerusalem 27 

3. Chapters 13-23, Oracles Concerning Foreign 

Nations 28 

4. Chapters 24-27, Jehovah's World- Judgment . 29 

5. Chapters 28-35, A Cycle of Warnings against 

Alliance with Egypt 30 

6. Chapters 36-39, History, Prophecy and Song 

Intermingled 31 

7. Chapters 40-66, Prophecies of Comfort, Sal- 

vation and Future Glory 32 

Study Three — The Period of Isaiah 

1. Under Uzziah; prior to His Call (740 B. C.) 35 

2. During the Reign of Jotham (740-736 B. C.) 37 

3. During the Reign of Ahaz (736-727 B. C.) . . 38 

4. During the Early Years of Hezekiah (727ff. 

B. C.) 39 



8 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



5. During Babylonia's Independence (721-709 

B. C.) 40 

6. During the Crisis of 701 B. C 41 

7. The Most Noteworthy Facts of Isaiah's Period 

(Chronological Table) 43 

Study Four — Isaiah's Prophecies Chronologi- 
cally Arranged 

1. The Inner Structure of His Book 47 

2. Isaiah's Earliest Messages (Chapters 1-6) . . 48 

3. Prophecies in Connection with the Syro- 

Ephraimitic War of 734 B. C. (Chapters 
7-12 and 17) 49 

4. Prophecies between 734 and 722 B. C. 

(Chapters 13-14, 23-27) 50 

5. During the Reign of Sargon II., 722-705 

B. C. (Chapters 15-16, 19-22, 38-39) 52 

6. Prior to and during the Siege of 701 B. C. 

(Chapters 28-37 and 18) 53 

7. After the Crisis of 701 B. C. (Chapters 

40-66) 54 

Study Five — The Critical Problem 

1. The Status Questionis 59 

2. The Fundamental Axiom of Criticism 60 

3. Other Governing Criteria 61 

4. The Writer's Personal Attitude 62 

5. The History of Criticism 64 

6. The Disintegration of Deutero-Isaiah 65 

7. The Literary History of the Book 66 

Study Six — Judah's Social Sins (Chapters 1-6) 

1. Formal Religion (Chapter 1) 69 

2. The Sin of War (Chapter 2 : 1-4) 70 



CONTENTS 9 

PAGE 

3. Foreign Customs and Alliances (Chapter 

2:5-22) 71 

4. The Sins of the Aristocracy (Chapters 3-4) . . 72 

5. Judah's National Sins (Chapter 5) 73 

6. The Sins of the Masses (Chapter 6) 74 

7. Summary of Isaiah's Social Discourses 75 

Study Seven — Judah's Political Entanglements 
(Chapters 7-12) 

1. The Syro-Ephraimitic Uprising (Chapter 

7:1-9) 79 

2. Ahaz, the King of No-Faith (Chapter 7: 10- 

25) 80 

3. No Conspiracy Successful without God 

(Chapters 8: 1—9: 7) 81 

4. Accumulated Wrath (Chapters 9: 8 — 10: 4) . 82 

5. Assyria, an Instrument of Jehovah (Chapter 

10:5-34) 83 

6. Israel's Return from Exile (Chapters 11-12) 84 

7. Summary of Isaiah's Political Discourses 

(734-732 B. C.) 85 

Study Eight — Isaiah's "Burdens" Concerning 
Foreign Nations (Chapters 13-23) 

1. Concerning Babylon (Chapters 13:1 — 14: 

23; 21: 1-10) 89 

2. Concerning Moab (Chapters 15-16) 90 

3. Concerning Philistia and Damascus (Chap- 

ters 14: 28-32; 17: 1-14) 91 

4. Concerning Egypt and Ethiopia (Chapters 

18-20) 92 

5. Concerning Edom and Arabia (Chapters 

21: 11-17; 34-35; 63: 1-6) 93 



10 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



6. Concerning the Foreign Temper within the 

Theocracy (Chapter 22) 9* 

7. Concerning Tyre (Chapter 23). Summary. . 95 

Study Nine — Spiritual Messages of Salvation 
(Chapters 24-27) 

1. Prophecy or Apocalypse ? 99 

2. Waves of Approaching Judgment (Chapter 

24) 100 

3. Songs of the Redeemed (Chapter 25) 101 

4. Life from the Dead (Chapter 26: 1-19) 102 

5. Israel's Chastisements Salutary (Chapters 

26: 20—27: 13) 103 

6. The Historical Standpoint of the Author. ... 104 

7. The Value of Chapters 24-27 to Isaiah's Age. 105 

Study Ten — A Series of Six Woes (Chapters 

28-33) 

1. Woe to Drunken, Scoffing Politicians (Chap- 

ter 28) 109 

2. Woe to Formalists in Religion (Chapter 

29: 1-14) 110 

3. Woe to those who hide their Plans from God 

(Chapter 29: 15-24) Ill 

4. Woe to the pro-Egyptian Party (Chapter 30) 112 

5. Woe to those who Trust in Horses and 

Chariots (Chapters 31-32) 113 

6. Woe to the Assyrian Destroyer (Chapter 33) 114 

7. Summary: No Woe without a Promise 115 

Study Eleven — History, Prophecy and Song 
(Chapters 36-39) 
1. The Fourteenth Year of King HezekiaE 

(Chapter 36: 1) 119 



CONTENTS 11 

PAGE 

2. The Events of 701 B. C. (Chapters 36-37) . . 120 

3. Isaiah's Last "Word" concerning Assyria 

(Chapter 37:21-35) 121 

4. Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery (Chapter 

38) 123 

5. Hezekiah's Song of Thanksgiving (Chapter 

38:9-20) 124 

6. The Embassy of Merodach-Baladan (Chapter 

39) 126 

7. An Estimate of Hezekiah 127 

Study Twelve — Deliverance from Captivity 
through Cyrus (Chapters 40-48) 

1. The Basis of Comfort, Israel's Incomparable 

God (Chapter 40) 131 

2. The Supreme Proof of Jehovah's Sole Deity, 

His Power to Predict (Chapter 41) 132 

3. The Spiritual Agent of Redemption, Jeho- 

vah's "Servant" (Chapters 42: 1—43: 13) 133 

4. Forgiveness, Jehovah's Pledge of Deliverance 

(Chapters 43:14—44:23) 135 

5. Cyrus, Jehovah's Agent in Israel's Deliver- 

ance (Chapters 44:24—45:25) 136 

6. The Overthrow of Babylon (Chapters 46-47) 137 

7. A Hortatory Summary of the Argument 

(Chapter 48) 138 

Study Thirteen — The Servant of Jehovah 
(Chapters 49-57) 

1. The Prophetic Setting of the "Servant 

Songs" 141 

2. The First of the Four "Servant Songs" 

(Chapter 42: 1-9) 142 



12 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

3. The Second of the Four "Servant Songs" 

(Chapter 49: 1-13) 143 

4. The Third of the Four "Servant Songs" 

(Chapter 50: 4-11) 144 

5. The Last of the Four "Servant Songs" 

(Chapters 52:13—53:12) 145 

6. Who the Servant of Jehovah Is 147 



7. The Fulfilment of these Prophecies in Christ. 148 

Study Fourteen — The Future Glory of the 
People of God (Chapters 58-66) 
1. True Fasting and Faithful Sabbath Obser- 



vance (Chapter 58) 151 

2. Hindrances to Israel's Salvation Removed 

(Chapter 59) 152 

3. The Future Blessedness of Zion (Chapters 

60-61) 153 

4. Zion's Salvation Drawing Near (Chapters 

62: 1—63: 6) 154 

5. Jehovah's "Servants" at Prayer (Chapters 

63: 7— 64: 12) 155 

6. Jehovah's Answer, Zion Triumphant (Chap- 

ters 65-66) 157 

7. Concluding Observations 158 

Study Fifteen — Review Questions 

1. Studies One and Two l6l 

2. Studies Three and Four 162 

3. Studies Five and Six 163 

4. Studies Seven and Eight 164 

5. Studies Nine and Ten 165 

6. Studies Eleven and Twelve 166 

7. Studies Thirteen and Fourteen 167 



INTRODUCTION 



Few books of the Old Testament have in modern times 
received the attention which has been accorded the book 
of Isaiah. An unusual flood of critical and expository 
literature has recently appeared, to which no careful 
student of the book would deny his very great indebted- 
ness. 

Yet it must be confessed that the divisive criticism of 
Isaiah has developed into a sort of reckless surgery, until 
it has become well-nigh impossible to find a proof text 
in support of a reasonably conservative position, whose 
genuineness is not disputed by some one. It almost 
seems sometimes that doubt were in competition with 
doubt. As Whitehouse remarks in opposition to Lagarde, 
Duhm and Marti, who dissect Isa. 63: 1, "as Edom is 
thus eliminated in one clause, it is necessary to operate 
on Bozrah in the other." (New Century Bible, Isaiah, 
vol. II., p. 303, n. 2.) The same is true of hosts of 
other passages. 

Yet notwithstanding the truth of these statements 
(and who would deny their truthfulness?) it is better to 
keep an open mind concerning the origin of these proph- 
ecies and not foreclose inquiry. For the book of Isaiah 
is a marvelous piece of literature even when dismem- 
bered and treated as an anthology or collection of 
prophecies from various prophets in different ages. 
And surely God could have inspired twenty Isaiahs as 
well as one ! The supreme question is, Have we adequate 
or convincing proof of the book's alleged composite 
character? In the judgment of the present writer we 
have not. 

The book of Isaiah when treated as an organic whole 
is a grand masterpiece. One great purpose dominates 



14 



INTRODUCTION 



the author throughout, which, as he proceeds, is brought 
to a climax in a picture of Israel's redemption and the 
glorification of Zion. Failure to recognize this unity 
incapacitates a man to do it exegetical justice. Of no 
other book in the Old Testament are the words of 
Davidson more true than of Isaiah, that "no particular 
doctrine of the prophet can be properly understood 
without some comprehension of his scheme of thought 
as a whole." 

The divine name, "the Holy One of Israel," which 
Isaiah ascribes to Jehovah, and which occurs twenty-five 
times in his book and only six times elsewhere in the 
entire Old Testament, interlocks inseparably all the 
various portions with one another and stamps them with 
the personal imprimatur of him who saw the vision of 
the Majestic God seated upon his throne high and lifted 
up, and heard the angelic choirs singing, "Holy, holy, 
holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his 
glory" (chapter 6). The presence of this divine name in 
all the different portions of the book is of more value in 
identifying Isaiah as the author of these prophecies than 
as though his name had been inscribed at the beginning of 
every chapter (cf. 1:4; 5: 19, 24; 10: 20; 12:6; 17: 7; 
29:19; 30:11, 12, 15; 31:1; 37:23— that is, twelve 
times in chapters 1-39; and 41:14, 16, 20; 4>3:3, 14; 
45: 11; 47:4; 48: 17; 49: 7; 54:5; 55:5; 60:9, 14— or 
thirteen times in chapters 40-66). 

One great theme likewise binds in a peculiar way all 
parts of this great book together, namely, salvation by 
faith. Isaiah is the Saint Paul of the Old Testament. 
His book taken as a whole is a large and illustrated 
Hebrew edition, so to speak, of the Epistle to the 
Romans; the essential difference between the apostle 
and the prophet being, that Isaiah lived in the future 



INTRODUCTION 



15 



of Israel's theology, whereas Paul correlated the teach- 
ings of the past. Prediction is the very essence and core 
of Isaiah's entire message. His verb tenses are pre- 
dominatingly futures and prophetic perfects. Isaiah was 
preeminently a prophet of the Future. With unparalleled 
suddenness he repeatedly leaps from despair to hope, 
from threat to promise, from the actual to the ideal. 
More than any other prophet also he demonstrates the 
interrelation of the natural and supernatural, showing 
that their spheres overlap. Isaiah's theology is the 
divinest and therefore the profoundest in the Old Testa- 
ment. His statement that he "saw the Lord" (6:1) is 
none too strong to account for the heights to which his 
imagination soars. 

No wonder that, when Augustine shortly after his 
conversion asked Ambrose which of the sacred books he 
should begin first to study, the answer he received was, 
"The prophecies of Isaiah." And considering the 
statesmanship of the prophet it is likewise little wonder 
that the celebrated British orator, Edmund Burke, habit- 
ually read from the prophecies of Isaiah before going 
to Parliament. The book of Isaiah is a marvelously 
profound, unique and exhaustive monograph on the 
doctrine of temporal and spiritual salvation. And the 
most marvelous thing about it is the fact that such truths 
were actually apprehended and committed to writing by 
any one before the time of Christ; for the book of Isaiah 
is "the gospel before the Gospel." 

Most humbly, therefore, the author sends forth this 
brief exposition of Isaiah's great book in the hope that 
it may at least prepare the way for a saner and deeper 
exposition of the great eighth century prophet, and at 
the same time bring relief to those whose minds are so 
often distracted by the technical and frequently mis- 



16 



INTRODUCTION 



leading critical commentaries upon it. Perhaps no book 
of the Old Testament has suffered more from commen- 
tary interference than that of Isaiah. 

For many helpful suggestions the author is indebted 
to his friend, the Reverend Lewis Gaston Leary, Ph. D., 
of Pelham Manor, New York, who not only reviewed the 
ms. in advance, but has kindly assisted in reading the 
proof sheets and in preparing the index. The American 
Standard Revision is the Bible text used in quotation. 
The student should be careful to read the Prophet him- 
self, chapter by chapter and section by section as indi- 
cated in the Studies, before consulting the exposition. 



And One Cried uxto Another, and Said, Holy, Holy, Holy, 
is Jehovah of Hosts: the Whole Earth is Full of His 
Glory. 

Axd I Heard the Voice of the Lord, Saying, Whom Shall 
I Send, and Who Will Go for Us? Then I Said, Here Am 
I; Send Me. 

Isa. 6:3, 8. 

How Beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of 
Him That Bringeth Good Tidings, That Publisheth Peace, 
That Bringeth Good Tidings of Good, That Publisheth 
Salvation, That Saith unto Zion, Thy God Reigneth ! 

Isa. 52: 7. 



STUDY ONE 



ISAIAH'S LIFE AND WRITINGS 

FIRST DAY— Isaiah's Personal History 

1. Of the four great prophets — Amos and Hosea, 
Isaiah and Micah — who are known to have lived and 
labored during the last half of the eighth century B. C, 
Isaiah is the greatest; indeed, Isaiah is the king of all 
prophets. 

2. He bore a name symbolic of his message, namely, 
Isaiah, signifying "Jehovah saves." He was a citizen, 
probably a native, of Jerusalem; hence a city prophet. 
In all his messages he gives great prominence to the 
capital. Inasmuch also as he stood in closest relations 
to the king, he was a court preacher. 

3. He was the son of Amoz (not Amos). He sprang 
apparently from a family of some rank, as may be in- 
ferred from his easy access to the king (Isa. 7), and 
his close intimacy with the priest (8:2). Tradition 
makes him the cousin of King Uzziah. 

4. Isaiah was married and had at least two sons; 
to whom he gave the names, Shear-j ashub, "a remnant 
shall return" (7:3), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, "hast- 
ing to the spoil, hurrying to the prey" (8:2, 3), sym- 
bolic of Assyria's mad lust of conquest. These names, 
as also his own, Isaiah regarded as embodying his mes- 
sage to Judah and Jerusalem (8: 18). 

SECOND DAY— Isaiah's Call to be Prophet 

1. Isaiah was called in the year that King Uzziah 
died. While worshiping in the temple he fell into a 



20 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



trance; suddenly the house and the ministers became 
transfigured^ and he beheld in triple vision God, sin, and 
salvation. He also received a call and a commission 
which sent him on a new pathway of duty (Isa. 6). 

2. From that moment, he seems to have regarded 
prophecy as his life's work. He responded with note- 
worthy alacrity, though he knew from the outset that his 
task was to be one of fruitless warning and judgment 
(6:9-1^). Nevertheless, without reserve, he dedicated 
to the work not only himself but his family. He speaks 
of his wife as the "prophetess" (8: 3), and of course the 
names of his two sons were constant reminders of the 
nation's fate. He also gathered about him a coterie of 
"disciples" to whom he committed his oracles of hope 
and promise (8: 16). 

3. Having been brought up in Jerusalem, Isaiah 
doubtless received the best education the capital could 
supply. He knew not only books but men ; consequently 
he was well fitted to become the political and religious 
counselor of the nation. He must have known the 
prophets Amos and Hosea, and often heard at least 
echoes of their preaching to North Israel. He prob- 
ably had many a conference with Micah, his younger 
contemporary in Judah, and frequently heard men tell 
of the earthquake which occurred in Uzziah's reign 
(Amos 1:1; Zech. 14: 5). 

4. But the event which impressed him most was the 
vision of the majestic and thrice holy God which he saw 
in the temple (6:3). This left an indelible impression 
upon his soul, and more than anything else fitted him for 
his difficult life work. Chapter 6 is technically the only 
"vision" in his book; and yet no other book of the Old 
Testament is so completely a continued vision of the 
future. For Isaiah the death-year of King Uzziah had 



LIFE AND WRITINGS 



21 



more than mere chronological value; it was the supreme 
moment of his spiritual history. 

THIRD DAY— Isaiah's Political and Spiritual Horizon 

1. No Hebrew prophet ever lived whose political 
horizon, domestic and foreign, was wider or more ex- 
tended than that of Isaiah of the eighth century B. C. 
Syria^ Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Philistia, Amnion, 
Moab and Edom were all actors upon the ever-changing 
stage of history. 

2. Only God can bound a man's spiritual horizon. 
He indeed spake "of old time unto the fathers in the 
prophets by divers portions/' but who would dare 
premise just how large the "portion" was which He 
committed to Isaiah of Jerusalem? Whether or not 
Isaiah wrote all the prophecies of the wonderful book 
which for so long has been associated with his name, 
humanly speaking such a book might more easily have 
been composed in his age than in any other. 

3. The theme about which all his prophecies revolve 
is "Judah and Jerusalem" (1: 1). Even in the oracles 
addressed to foreign nations (chapters 13-23), Judah and 
Jerusalem are still the goal and center of the prophet's 
thoughts. Occasionally, however, he directed a brief 
message to North Israel, as in chapters 9:8 — 10:4; 
17:1-11; 28:1-6; and frequently he interspersed his 
prophecies with history as occasion required (chapters 7, 
20, and 36-39). 

4. His mission to his own age was a very compre- 
hensive one; so much so that Delitzsch speaks of him as 
"the universal prophet of Israel." There were prac- 
tically no bounds to his imagination, any more than 
there were limits to Jehovah's power to save (45:22). 



22 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



Isaiah saw clearly that the ideal kingdom, which God 
was about to establish through the Messiah, included all 
people. In a word, he was the prophet of universal 
redemption by faith. 

FOURTH DAY— Isaiah's Character and Patriotism 

1. No prophet of the Old Testament combined more 
perfectly than Isaiah earthly vision and sagacity, cour- 
age and conviction, versatility of gifts and singleness of 
purpose, on the one hand, with clear vision and spiritual 
intuition, a love of righteousness and a keen appreciation 
of Jehovah's majesty and holiness, on the other. Vale- 
ton describes him thus: "Never perhaps has there been 
another prophet like Isaiah, who stood with his head in 
the clouds and his feet on the solid earth, with his heart 
in the things of eternity and with mouth and hand in 
the things of time, with his spirit in the eternal counsel 
of God and his body in a very definite moment of his- 
tory." 

2. No prophet also, except perhaps Jeremiah, felt 
more keenly than Isaiah the cost of genuine patriotism, 
or the burden which all true prophets in every age are 
forced to bear. He saw clearly that a man cannot be a 
faithful patriot and always be optimistic, saying com- 
plimentary things about his nation or their deeds. 

3. Isaiah was no soothsayer. Frequently he de- 
nounced heathen cults as inimical to the theocracy. 
In politics he was neutral; but he did not separate reli- 
gion from politics. As a seer he united the profoundest 
religious insight with a wide knowledge of men and 
affairs, and possessed a balance of powers rarely com- 
bined in a single individual. He was unquestionably 
the most imposing figure of his age. 



LIFE AND WRITINGS 



23 



FIFTH DAY— Isaiah's Literary Genius and Style 

1. For versatility of expression and brilliancy of 
imagery Isaiah had no superior, not even a rival. His 
style marks the climax of Hebrew literary art. Both 
his periods and descriptions are most finished and sub- 
lime. "Every word from him stirs and strikes its mark," 
says Dillmann. Beauty and strength are characteristic 
of his entire book. He is a perfect artist in words. No 
other Old Testament writer uses so many beautifully 
picturesque illustrations (5:1-7; 12:3; 28 : 23-29 ; 
32: 2). 

2. Epigrams and metaphors, particularly of flood, 
storm and sound (1: 13; 5: 18, 22; 8:8; 10: 22; 28: 17, 
20; 30:28, 30), interrogation and dialogue (10:8; 
6:8), antithesis and alliteration (1:18; 3:24; 17:10, 
12), hyperbole and parable (2:7; 5:1-7; 28:23-29), 
even paranomasia, or play on words (5:7; 7:9), char- 
acterize Isaiah's book as the masterpiece of Hebrew lit- 
erature. He is also famous for his vocabulary and rich- 
ness of synonyms. Ezekiel uses 1535 words; Jeremiah, 
1653; the Psalmist, 2170; Isaiah, 2186. 

3. Isaiah was also an orator. Jerome likened him 
to Demosthenes. He was likewise a poet. He fre- 
quently elaborates his messages in rhythmic or poetic 
style (12:1-6; 25:1-5; 26:1-12; 38:10-20; 42:1-4;' 
49: 1-9; 50: 4-9; 52: 13—53: 12; 60-62; 66: 5-24) ; and 
in several instances slips into elegiac rhythm: for 
example, in 37:22-29 there is a fine taunting poem on 
Sennacherib, and in 14:4-21 another on the king of 
Babylon. As Driver remarks, "Isaiah's poetical genius 
is superb. 99 

SIXTH DAY — Traditions Concerning Isaiah's Martyrdom 
1. Nothing historically definite is known concerning 



24 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



the prophet's end. There was a tradition, however, 
common among the Jews towards the close of the second 
century A. D., to the effect that Isaiah suffered martyr- 
dom in the heathen reaction which occurred under King 
Manasseh, because of certain speeches concerning God 
and the Holy City which his contemporaries alleged 
were contrary to the law. 

2. The Jewish Mishna (the first part of the Talmud) 
states that Manasseh slew Isaiah. Justin Martyr 
(150 A. D.), in his controversial dialogue with the Jew, 
Trypho, reproaches the Jews with the accusation, "whom 
ye sawed asunder with a wooden saw"; so also a Jewish 
Apocalypse of the second century A. D., entitled "The 
Ascension of Isaiah"; and likewise Epiphanius in his 
so-called "Lives of the Prophets." It is possible that 
there is an allusion to Isaiah's martyrdom in Heb. 1 1 : 37, 
"they were stoned, they were sawn asunder," but this 
is by no means certain. 

3. In any case Isaiah probably survived the great 
catastrophe of the siege of Jerusalem in 701 B. C, and 
possibly also the death of Hezekiah (699 B. C.) ; for in 
2 Chron. 32: 32 it is stated that Isaiah wrote a biography 
of King Hezekiah. If so, his prophetic activity ex- 
tended over a period of more than forty years. George 
Adam Smith extends it to "more than fifty." (Jerusalem, 
vol. II., p. 180; cf. Whitehouse, Isaiah, in the New Cen- 
tury Bible, vol. I., p. 72). 

SEVENTH DAY— Selected Literature 

1. Commentaries on Isaiah: Whitehouse, in the New 
Century Bible, 2 vols., 1905; Skinner, in the Cambridge 
Bible for Schools and Colleges, 2 vols., 1896; G. A. 
Smith, in the Expositor's Bible, 2 vols., 1888-90; De- 



LIFE AND WRITINGS 



25 



litzsch's Commentary, English edition, 2 vols., 1892; 
Cheyne's Commentary, third edition, 2 vols., 1884; 
Orelli's Commentary, translated by Banks, 1895; Mac- 
laren's Expositions of Holy Scripture, 2 vols., 1906. 

2. Introduction and Criticism: Driver, Isaiah, his 
Life and Times, in The Men of the Bible Series, 1888; 
Cheyne, Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, 1895; W. R. 
Smith, The Prophets of Israel, second edition, 1896; 
Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets, 1892; 
Thirtle, Old Testament Problems, 1907; Konig, The 
Exiles' Book of Consolation, 1899; Kennedy, The Argu- 
ments for the Unity of Isaiah, 1891 ; Workman, The 
Servant of Jehovah, 1907; W. E. Barnes, An Examina- 
tion of Isaiah, 24-27, 1891. 

3. Bible Dictionaries (articles on "Isaiah") : G. A. 
Smith, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, 1899; 
Cheyne, in the Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1901 ; James 
Robertson, in the Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1908; 
Konig, in the Standard Bible Dictionary, 1909; G. B. 
Gray, in Hastings' (one volume) Dictionary of the 
Bible, 1909. 

4. In German: the commentaries of Dillmann, 1890; 
Duhm, 1902; Marti, 1900; and Dillmann's as revised by 
Kittel, 1898, are recommended. 



I, Even I, am He That Blotteth Out Thy Transgressions 
for Mine Own Sake; and I will not Remember Thy Sins. 

Isa. 43:25. 



Look unto Me, and be Ye Saved, All the Ends of the 
Earth; for I am God., and There is Xone Else. 

Isa. 45:22. 



STUDY TWO 



ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 

FIRST DAY— The Six General Divisions of the Book 

1. Chapters 1-12, prophecies concerning Judah and 
Jerusalem, closing with promises of restoration and a 
psalm of thanksgiving. 

2. Chapters 13-23, oracles of judgment and salva- 
tion^ for the most part concerning those foreign nations 
whose fortunes affected Judah and Jerusalem. 

3. Chapters 24-27;, Jehovah's world- judgment, is- 
suing in the redemption of Israel. 

4. Chapters 28-35, a cycle of prophetic warnings 
against alliance with Egypt, closing with a prophecy 
concerning Edom and a promise of Israel's ransom. 

5. Chapters 36-39, history, prophecy and song inter- 
mingled; serving both as an appendix to chapters 1-35, 
and as an introduction to chapters 40-66. 

6. Chapters 40-66, prophecies of comfort, salvation, 
and of the future glory awaiting Israel. 

(The student would do well to mark off in some way these 
six divisions in his Bible; perhaps adding the headings in the 
margin.) 

SECOND DAY— Chapters 1-12. Prophecies Concerning 
Judah and Jerusalem 

Chapter 1. Jehovah's lament over Israel; an intro- 
duction striking the chief notes of the entire book: (1) 
thoughtlessness, verses 2-9; (2) formalism, verses 10-17; 
(3) pardon, verses 18-23; (4) redemption, verses 24-31. 

Chapters 2-4. Three pictures of Zion: (1) her 



28 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



future exaltation, 2:2-4; (2) her present idolatry, 
2: 5 — 4: 1 ; (3) her eventual purification, 4: 2-6. 

Chapter 5. Isaiah's arraignment of Judah and Jeru- 
salem: (1) parable of the vineyard, verses 1-7; (2) a 
series of six woes, verses 8-23; (3) first description of 
the Assyrian invaders, verses 24-30. 

Chapter 6. The prophet's inaugural vision and 
commission. 

Chapters 7:1 — 9:7. The prophecy of Immanuel; 
history and prediction being intermingled. 

Chapters 9:8 — 10:4. An announcement to North 
Israel of impending ruin, with a refrain (9: 13, 17, 21; 
10: 4). 

Chapter 10:5-34. Assyria, the rod of Jehovah's 
anger. 

Chapter 11 : 1-9- The Messianic reign of ideal peace. 

Chapter 11: 10-16. The return of Israel and Judah 
from exile ; no more any rivalry between them. 

Chapter 12. A thanksgiving psalm of the redeemed 
nation. 

(The student should also designate in some way these sub- 
divisions in the text of his Bible.) 

THIRD DAY— Chapters 13-23. Oracles of Judgment and 
Salvation, for the most part Concerning those Foreign 
Nations whose Fortunes Affected Judah and Jerusalem 

Chapters 13:2—14:23. The downfall of Babylon: 
(1) judgment upon the city, 13:2-22; (2) judgment 
upon the king, 14: 1-23. 

Chapter 14:24-27. The certain destruction of the 
Assyrian. 

Chapter 14: 28-32. An oracle concerning Philistia. 
Chapters 15-16. An oracle concerning Moab. 



ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK 29 



Chapter 17: 1-11. An oracle concerning Damascus 
and North Israel. 

Chapter 17: 12-14. The annihilation of Judah's ene- 
mies. 

Chapter 18. A prediction concerning Ethiopia. 
Chapter 19- An oracle concerning Egypt. 
Chapter 20. Sargon's march against Egypt and 
Ethiopia. 

Chapter 21 : 1-10. An oracle concerning "the wilder- 
ness of the sea" (Babylon). 

Chapter 21:11-12. An oracle concerning Seir 
(Edom). 

Chapter 21: 13-17. An oracle concerning Arabia. 
Chapter 22: 1-14. An oracle "of the valley of vision" 
(Jerusalem). 

Chapter 22:15-25. A philippic against Shebna, the 
comptroller of the palace. 

Chapter 23. An oracle concerning Tyre. 

(The student should continue to designate in his Bible these 
main subdivisions; also those which follow.) 

FOURTH DAY— Chapters 24-27. Jehovah's World-Judg- 
ment, issuing in the Redemption of Israel 

Chapter 24: 1-13. Desolation of "the earth" and of 
"the city" (i.e. 5 Judah and her towns). 

Chapter 24: 14, 15. The dawn of a better day. 

Chapter 24: 16-23. Premature songs of rejoicing; 
more judgment is coming. 

Chapter 25: 1-5. A hymn of thanksgiving, in which 
the prophet pleads for his people's deliverance. 

Chapter 25:6-8. "A feast of fat things" to all 
nations "in this mountain," when death and the sorrows 
of war have passed away. 



so 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



Chapter 25:9-12. A second hymn of thanksgiving, 
looking to the time when Jehovah, the long looked-for 
deliverer, will come, and Moab's arrogance shall be laid 
low. 

Chapter 26: 1-19. A third hymn of thanksgiving, 
because the "strong city" (Jerusalem) has been re- 
deemed, and life has issued from the dead. 

Chapters 26:20 — 27:1. An exhortation to God's 
people to hide themselves till God's judgment has 
shattered the world-powers. 

Chapter 27:2-6. A fourth hymn of thanksgiving, 
because deliverance from the enemy will be followed by 
national expansion. 

Chapter 27:7-11. Jehovah's discipline of Jacob has 
been for his good; the nations, on the contrary, have 
been punished and destroyed. 

Chapter 27: 12, 13. The children of Israel shall be 
gathered from Assyria and from Egypt to worship Jeho- 
vah in Jerusalem. 

FIFTH DAY— Chapters 28-35. A Cycle of Prophetic 
Warnings against Alliance with Egypt, closing with 
a Prophecy Concerning Edom and a Promise of 
Israel's Ransom 

Chapter 28: 1-6. The warning from Samaria. 

Chapter 28 : 7-22. The fate of the scoffing, dissolute 
politicians of Jerusalem. 

Chapter 28: 23-29. A parable of comfort; God's 
judgments always proportionate to man's offense. 

Chapter 29: 1-8. Jerusalem's humiliation and subse- 
quent deliverance. 

Chapter 29: 9-14. The people's spiritual stupidity. 

Chapter 29: 15-24. Exposure of a conspiracy with 



ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK 31 



Egypt, followed by a graphic prediction of the ideal 
future. 

Chapter 30: 1-17. An emphatic denunciation of the 
alliance with Egypt. 

Chapter 30: 18-26. A brilliant picture of the Mes- 
sianic age. 

Chapter 30:27-33. Jehovah's vengeance upon the 
Assyrian. 

Chapter 31. The folly of relying on Egypt; Jehovah 
will protect Jerusalem and utterly destroy the Assyrian. 

Chapter 32:1-8. Another vivid picture of the Mes- 
sianic age. 

Chapter 32:9-14. A rebuke to the women of Jeru- 
salem. 

Chapter 32: 15-20. The blessedness of the Mes- 
sianic future. 

Chapter 33. A woe pronounced upon an unnamed 
invader, followed by a promise of deliverance and the 
perfection of the kingdom of God. 

Chapter 34. Jehovah's indignation against all na- 
tions, specially Edom. 

Chapter 35. The future blessedness of the ransomed 
exiles. 

SIXTH DAY— Chapters 36-39. History, Prophecy and 
Song Intermingled; serving both as an Appendix to 
Chapters 1-35 and as an Introduction to Chapters 40-66 

Chapter 36:1 (2 Kings 18:13). Sennacherib's in- 
vasion of Judah and capture of all her fortified cities. 

Chapters 36:2—37:8 (2 Kings 18:17—19:18). 
Sennacherib sends Rabshakeh from Lachish against 
Hezekiah; Rabshakeh makes a defiant threat, but is 
unable to take Jerusalem. 



32 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



Chapter 37:9-38 (2 Kings 19:9-37). Sennacherib 
suddenly threatened by Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, 
sends messengers from Libnah to Hezekiah with a letter, 
peremptorily demanding the surrender of Jerusalem 
(vs. 9-13) ; Hezekiah spreads the letter before Jehovah 
in the temple and prays to be saved from the king of 
Assyria (vs. 14-20) ; Isaiah addresses to Hezekiah a 
prophecy predicting deliverance (vs. 21-35) ; Sennache- 
rib's army is mysteriously destroyed, whereupon he 
returns to Nineveh and is subsequently assassinated by 
his sons (vs. 36-38). 

Chapter 38: 1-8. Hezekiah's sickness, with the sign 
and promise of his recovery. 

Chapter 38: 9-20. Hezekiah's song of thanksgiving. 

Chapter 38:21, 22. The means by which Hezekiah's 
cure is brought about. 

Chapter 39. The embassy of Merodach-Baladan to 
Hezekiah. 

SEVENTH DAY— Chapters 40-66. Prophecies of Com- 
fort, Salvation and of the Future Glory awaiting Israel 

Chapters 40-48. Deliverance from captivity through 
Cyrus, promised by the infinite and incomparable Jeho- 
vah. 

Chapters 49-57. The sufferings of the Servant of 
Jehovah; this section ending like the former with the 
refrain, "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" 
(57: 21 ; cf. 48: 22). 

Chapters 58-66. The abolition of all national dis- 
tinctions and the future glory of the people of God. 
Chapter 60 is the characteristic chapter of this section, 
as chapter 53 is of the second, and chapter 40 of the 
first. 



ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK 33 



The great texts of Isaiah: 1:8, 18; 2:4; 6:3, 8: 
7:14; 9:6; 11:6, 9; 12:3; 21:11, 12; 26:3; 28:10, 
16, 20; 32:2; 33:14, 17; 35:1, 10; 38:1, 15, 16: 
40: 1, 3, 8, 31 ; 42 : 3, 21 ; 43: 25; 45 : 22 ; 52: 7; 53: 5: 
54: 10; 55: 1, 6, 7; 59: 1; 60: 1, 8; 61: 1-3; 63: 1, 16: 
65: 17; 66: 13. 



The Ox Knoweth His Owner, and the Ass His Master's 
Crib; but Israel Doth not Know, My People Doth not 
Consider. 

Isa. 1:3. 

For Jerusalem is Ruined, and Judah is Fallen; because 
Their Tongue and Their Doings are Against Jehovah, to 
Provoke the Eyes of His Glory. 

Isa. 3:8. 

Oh That Thou Hadst Hearkened to My Commandments! 
Then Had Thy Peace Been as a River, and Thy Righteous- 
ness as the Waves of the Sea. 

Isa. 48:18. 



STUDY THREE 



THE PERIOD OF ISAIAH 

FIRST DAY— Under Uzziah; Prior to his Call (740 B. C.) 

1. According to the title of his book (1: 1), Isaiah 
prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, 
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, or ca. 740-701 B. C. 
He dates his inaugural vision (6:1) in Uzziah's death- 
year (740 B. C). As the prophet seems to have pos- 
sessed the judgment and influence of a mature man from 
the beginning of his active ministry, it may be safely 
assumed that he was born as early as 765 B. C, or about 
the middle of Uzziah's long and prosperous reign (789- 
740 B. C). 

2. As a young man Isaiah witnessed the rapid devel- 
opment of Judah into a strong commercial and military 
state; for under Uzziah Judah attained a degree of 
prosperity and strength never before enjoyed since the 
days of Solomon. Walls, towers, fortifications, a large 
standing army, a port for commerce on the Red Sea, 
increased inland trade, tribute from the Ammonites, 
success in war with the Philistines and the Arabians — all 
these were Judah's during Uzziah's long reign (2 Kings 
14:22; 2 Chron. 26). 

3. But along with power and wealth and luxury came 
also the sins of avarice, oppression, religious formality, 
and corruption. Jerusalem became not only populous 
but cosmopolitan. The temple revenues indeed were 
greatly increased, but religion and life were too fre- 
quently dissociated; the nation's progress was altogether 
material. 

4. On the other hand all the surrounding nations 



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THE PERIOD OF ISAIAH 37 



were correspondingly weak, excepting North Israel under 
Jeroboam II. (784-745 B. C), in which also opulence 
and unusual prosperity prevailed; for Israel, like Persia, 
and in more modern times Spain before the destruction 
of the Armada, was most prosperous just before the 
nation's final collapse. 

SECOND DAY— During the Reign of Jotham 
(740-736 B. C.) 

1. Jotham for several years was probably associated 
with his father Uzziah as co-regent, because of the lat- 
ter's leprosy (2 Kings 15:5). In 740 B. C, however, 
he became sole king, continuing his father's policy of 
building and fortifying the capital (2 Kings 15:35; 
2 Chron. 27: 3). 

2. But a new power was about to break over the 
eastern horizon. The Assyrians, with whom Ahab had 
come into contact at the battle of Karkar in 854 B. C, 
and to whom Jehu had paid tribute in 842 B. C, began 
to manifest anew their characteristic lust of conquest. 

3. Tiglath-pileser III. (the same as "Pul" of 2 Kings 
15: 19) j a born general and a statesman, inaugurated a 
new epoch in Assyrian history. He reigned from 745 
to 727 B. C. The first three years of his reign were 
spent in subduing the Armenians and Medes in the north 
and east. He then turned his attention westward; in 
738 B. C, Arpad, Calno, Carchemish, Hamath and 
Damascus were reduced and made to pay tribute. Like- 
wise Menahem, king of Israel (745-737 B. C), following 
the ignoble example of Jehu, hastened to purchase vassal- 
age at a price amounting to about two millions of dollars 
(2 Kings 15: 19). This short-sighted policy of seeking 
to buy the friendship of Assyria led to an outbreak of 



38 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



patriotism on the part of Menahem's subjects. Pekah, 
Menaham's chief general, became the leader of what 
might be called the patriotic party, and eventually found 
his way to the throne. 

THIRD DAY— During the Reign of Ahaz (736-727 B. C.) 

1. The presence of Tiglath-pileser in the west 
(738 B. C.) had led Pekah, the new king of North 
Israel (736-730 B. C), and Rezin, king of Damascus, 
to form an alliance, in order to resist further encroach- 
ment on the part of Assyria. When Ahaz of Jerusalem 
(736-727 B. C.) refused to join their confederacy they 
resolved to dethrone him and set in his stead the son of 
Tabeel upon the throne of David (2 Kings 16:5; Isa. 
7:6). The Edomites and Philistines also made frequent 
inroads into Judah about this time (2 Chron. 28: 17-18). 

2. The struggle which ensued is commonly known 
as the Syro-Ephraimitic war (734 B. C.) — one of the 
greatest events in Isaiah's period. According to the 
chronicler, Judah was brought very low (2 Chron. 
28: 19). Ahaz in panic sent to Tiglath-pileser for help 
(Isa. 7). The great Assyrian warrior of course re- 
sponded with alacrity. He sacked Gaza and carried 
Galilee and Gilead into captivity (734 B. C), and finally 
took Damascus (732 B. C), besides receiving rich re- 
wards from Ahaz (2 Kings 16:7-9; 15:29; Isa. 9:1). 
On the same expedition Tiglath-pileser also exacted 
tribute from Ashkelon, Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the 
Arabians. 

3. The religious as well as the political effect of 
Ahaz's policy was decidedly baneful. To please Tiglath- 
pileser Ahaz went to Damascus to join in the celebration 
of his victories, and while there saw a Syrian altar, a 



THE PERIOD OF ISAIAH 39 



pattern of which he sent to Jerusalem and had a copy 
set up in the temple in place of the brazen altar of Solo- 
mon. Thus Ahaz, with all the influence of a king, intro- 
duced the religion of Syria into Jerusalem, even causing 
his sons to pass through the fire (2 Kings 16: 10-16; 
2 Chron. 28). Isaiah at this time was not far from 
thirty years of age. 

FOURTH DAY— During the Early Years of Hezekiah 
(727ff. B. C.) 

1. Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah at the age 
of twenty-five and reigned twenty-nine years (727-699 
B. C). Isaiah was at least fifteen years his senior. 
The young king inherited from his father a very heavy 
burden. The splendor of Uzziah's and Jotham's reigns 
was rapidly fading before the menacing and ever ava- 
ricious Assyrians. Judah and Jerusalem had also re- 
ceived a shock in 734 B. C. when they beheld Tiglath- 
pileser carry at least two thirds of North Israel into 
captivity. Accordingly Hezekiah began his reign in 
Judah with a reformation. "He removed the high places 
and brake the pillars and cut down the Asherah" (2 
Kings 18: 4, 22). He even invited the surviving remnant 
of North Israel to join in celebrating the Passover 
(2 Chron. SO). 

2. But Israel's end was drawing near. Hoshea, the 
vacillating puppet-king of North Israel (730-722 B. C), 
encouraged by Egypt, refused longer to pay Assyria his 
annual tribute (2 Kings 17:4). Tiglath-pileser had 
died, but his son, Shalmaneser IV., who succeeded him 
(727-722 B. C), promptly appeared before the gates 
of Samaria in 724 B. C. and for three weary years be- 
sieged the city (2 Kings 17 : 5). Shalmaneser died just 



40 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



before the city capitulated; but his successor,, Sargon II. 
(722-705 B. C), records in his annals that during his 
first regnal rear (722 B. C.) Samaria was actually cap- 
tured^ and 22.290 of Israel's choicest people deported 
to Assyria (2 Kings 17:6): and further, that colonists 
were brought from Babylonia and other adjacent dis- 
tricts and placed in the cities of Samaria (2 Kings 
17:24). 

8. Thus the kingdom of Xorth Israel passed com- 
pletely away and Judah was left ever after quite exposed 
to the direct ravages,, political and religious,, of her 
Assyrio-Babylonian neighbors. Judah herself barely 
escaped destruction by promising heavy tribute to 
Assyria. 

FIFTH DAY — During Babylonia's Independence 

(721-709 B. C.) 

1. Among the many vassal kinglets who rebelled 
when Sargon seized the throne of Assyria in 722 B. C. } 
there was one who proved too powerful to be subdued,, 
namely j Merodach-Baladan. the ever ambitious and irre- 
sistible patriot of Babylonia and the uncompromising 
sworn enemy of Assyria. For twelve years he main- 
tained independent supremacy over Babylon (721-709 
B. C). 

2. Sargon, accordingly, recognizing the impossibility 
of dislodging Merodach-Baladan from Babylon, turned 
his attention toward Syria and Palestine. In 720 B. C, 
at Karkar, he conquered the recalcitrant kings of Arpad,, 
Hamath and Damascus ; then, entering Palestine, he 
defeated at Raphia. Hanno of Gaza, and deposed Azuri, 
king of Ashdod (720 B. C). Judah,, Moab and Edom 
escaped by paying heavy toll. In 717 B. C, Sargon 



THE PERIOD OF ISAIAH 41 



added Carchemish, the capital of the Hittites, and Media 
to his many victories, 

3. In 714 B. C.j Hezekiah fell desperately ill and, 
being childless, was seriously concerned for the future 
of the Davidic dynasty. He resorted to prayer, how- 
ever, and God graciously extended his life fifteen years 
(2 Kings 20; Isa. 38). Whereupon Merodach-Baladan, 
hearing of Hezekiah's wonderful cure, seized the oppor- 
tunity of sending an embassy to Jerusalem to congratu- 
late him on his recovery (712 B. C), and at the same 
time probably sought to form an alliance with Judah to 
resist Assyrian supremacy. Hezekiah cordially received 
the Babylonian ambassadors and foolishly showed them 
all his treasures (2 Kings 20: 12-21; Isa. 39). Nothing 
came of the alliance, for the following year (711 B. C.) 
Sargon's army reappeared in Philistia in order to dis- 
cipline Ashdod for similar conspiracy with the king of 
Egypt. Isaiah had now passed middle life. 

SIXTH DAY— During the Crisis of 701 B. C. 

1. Judah and her neighbors groaned more and more 
under the heavy exactions of Assyria. Accordingly, 
when Sargon was assassinated and Sennacherib came to 
the throne (705 B. C), rebellion broke out on all sides. 
Merodach-Baladan, who had been expelled by Sargon 
in 709 B. C, again took Babylon and held it for at least 
six months (703 B. C). Hezekiah, who was encouraged 
by Egypt and all Philistia, except Padi of Ekron, the 
puppet-king of Sargon, refused longer to pay Assyria 
tribute (2 Kings 18: 7). Meanwhile a strong pro- 
Egyptian party had sprung up in Jerusalem. 

2. Consequently in 701 B. C, Sennacherib marched 
westward with a vast army, sweeping everything before 



42 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



him. Tyre was invested though not taken; on the other 
hand; Joppa, Eltekeh, Ekron, Ashkelon, Ammon, Moab 
and Edom all promptly yielded to his demands. Heze- 
kiah was panic-stricken and hastened to bring rich tribute, 
stripping even the temple and the palace of their treas- 
ures to do so (2 Kings 18:13-16). But Sennacherib 
was not yet satisfied. He overran Judah, capturing, as 
he tells us in his inscription, forty-six walled towns and 
smaller villages without number, carrying 200,150 of 
Judah's population into captivity to Assyria, and de- 
manding as tribute 800 talents of silver and thirty talents 
of gold (over $1,500,000) ; he took also Hezekiah's 
daughters and palace women, seized his male and female 
singers, and carried away enormous spoil. 

3. But the end was not yet. Sennacherib himself, 
with the bulk of his army, halted to reduce Lachish; 
thence he sent a strong detachment under Rabshakeh to 
besiege Jerusalem (2 Kings 18: 17 — 19: 8; Isa. 36: 2 — 
37:8): As he expresses it in his own inscription, "I 
shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage." 
Rabshakeh, the commander-in-chief, failed, however, to 
capture the city and returned to Sennacherib, who mean- 
while had conquered Lachish and was now warring 
against Libnah. 

4. A second expedition against Jerusalem was 
planned; but hearing that Tirhakah (at that time the 
commander-in-chief of Egypt's forces and only after- 
wards "king of Ethiopia") was approaching, Sennache- 
rib sent messengers with a letter to Hezekiah, demanding 
immediate surrender of the city (2 Kings 19:9-37; Isa. 
37:9-38). Hezekiah, however, through Isaiah's in- 
fluence held out; and in due time, though Sennacherib 
disposed of Tirhakah's army without difficulty, his im- 
mense host in some mysterious way — by plague or other- 



THE PERIOD OF ISAIAH 43 



wise — was suddenly smitten, and the great Assyrian con- 
queror was forced to return to Nineveh, possibly because 
Merodach-Baladan had again appeared in Babylonia. 
Sennacherib never again returned to Palestine, so far 
as we know, during the subsequent twenty years of his 
reign (705-681 B. C), though he did make an independ- 
ent expedition into North Arabia (691-689 B. C). 

5. This invasion of Judah by Sennacherib in 701 
B. C. was the great event in Isaiah's ministry. Had it 
not been for the prophet's statesmanship, Jerusalem 
might have capitulated. As it was, only a small rem- 
nant of Judah's population escaped. Isaiah was now 
well-nigh sixty-five years of age, having preached full 
forty years. How much longer he labored is not known. 

SEVENTH DAY— The Most Noteworthy Facts of Isaiah's 

Period 

1. The immense contrast between the Judah of 
Isaiah's earlier and the Judah of his later years. Wealth 
and luxury, under Uzziah and Jotham; the country dis- 
tricts depopulated and the capital a mere shadow of its 
former self, after the siege by Sennacherib. 

2. The complete overthrow of North Israel; and in 
its place a colony of Babylonians and other foreigners, 
mingling necessarily more or less with the people of 
Judah and manufacturing idols in Palestine as they had 
been wont to do at home (2 Kings 17: 29-33). 

3. The social conditions which prevailed were almost 
hopeless. Great wealth and extreme poverty existed 
side by side. The rich oppressed the poor (cf. Mic. 
2 and 3). The women were haughty and gaily attired 
(Isa. 3:l6ff.). Avarice, drunkenness, careless carous- 
ing, daring defiance and wrong-doing, apathy to moral 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



distinctions, and self-conceit prevailed, especially among 
the politicians and judges who were expected to guard 
the nation's interests (Isa. 5:8-23). The ravages of 
war greatly aggravated the woeful poverty of the country 
peasants. 

4. Religion had become corrupt. Ahaz had intro- 
duced a Syrian altar, and with it a stream of idolatrous 
practices. Hezekiah's reforms were drastic, but only 
temporary. The newly settled colonists from Baby- 
lonia and other places, in the territory which once be- 
longed to North Israel, increased the tendency to idol- 
atry. Soothsaying, incantations and necromancy took 
the place of loyalty to Jehovah, who seemed to have for- 
saken Israel (Isa. 2:6; 8:19, 20; 28:18; 65:4). 
Prophets and priests had degenerated (Isa. 28: 7) ; reli- 
gion and morality had become almost utterly divorced 
(Isa. 1 : 5-16) ; even the chief representative of the house 
of David, Ahaz the king, made his sons pass through the 
fire. Under such conditions and to such an age Isaiah 
was called to preach. 



Chronological Table 



B.C., ca. 765. 



Isaiah born. 
Uzziah. 
Jeroboam II. 
Tiglath-pileser III. 
The Call of Isaiah. 
Jotham (sole reign). 

Arpad, Calno, Carchemish and Damascus 

taken by Tiglath-pileser III. 

Menahem. 

Pekahiah. 

Pekah. 

Ahaz. 



789-740. 
784-745. 
745-727. 
740. 



740-736. 
738. 



745-737. 
737-736. 
736-730. 
736-727. 



THE PERIOD OF ISAIAH 45 



734. Syro-Ephraimitic war; Gaza captured by 
Tiglath-pileser III.; Galilee and Gilead also 
carried captive to Assyria. 

732. Damascus taken by Tiglath-pileser III. 

730-722. Hoshea. 

727-699. Hezekiah. 

727-722. Shalmaneser IV. 

722. Fall of Samaria; end of the kingdom of 

North Israel. 
722-705. Sargon II. 

721-709. Babylonia independent under Merodach- 
Baladan. 

720. Battle of Karkar; Sargon II. conquers 
Arpad, Hamath and Damascus. Battle of 
Raphia; Sargon II. conquers Hanno of Gaza; 
King So of Egypt flees. 

717. Sargon II. conquers the Hittites. capturing 
Carchemish, their capital; annexing also 
Media to his empire. 

714. Hezekiah's sickness. 

712. Merodach-Baladan's embassy to Hezekiah. 
712-700. Shabaka, founder of twenty-fifth dynasty in 

Egypt. 

711. Siege of Ashdod by Sargon II. 

709. Merodach-Baladan expelled from Babylonia 

by Sargon II. 
705-681. Sennacherib. 

703. Merodach-Baladan again king (six months) 
over Babylonia. 

701. Siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib; Judah, 
Moab, Edom, Ammon and Philistia made to 
pay tribute. Tirhakah (afterwards "king of 
Ethiopia") head of the Egyptian army under 
Shabaka. 

699-643. Manasseh, king of Judah. 



The Wilderness and the Dry Land Shall be Glad; and 
the Desert Shall Rejoice, and Blossom as the Rose. 

Isa. 35:1. 

And a Highway Shall be There, and It Shall be Called, 
The Wa^ of Holiness; the Unclean Shall not Pass Over 
It; but It Shall be for the Redeemed: the Wayfaring Men, 
Yea, Fools, Shall not Err Therein. 

Isa. 35 : 8. 

And the Ransomed of Jehovah Shall Return, and Come 
with Singing unto Zion; and Everlasting Joy Shall be 
upon Their Heads: They Shall Obtain Gladness and Joy, 
and Sorrow and Sighing Shall Flee Away. 

Isa. 35:10; 51:11: 



STUDY FOUR 



ISAIAH'S PROPHECIES CHRONOLOGICALLY 
ARRANGED 

FIRST DAY— The Inner Structure of His Book 

1. The editorial arrangement of Isaiah's prophecies 
is very suggestive. In the main they stand in chrono-. 
logical order. All the dates mentioned are in strict his- 
torical sequence; for example, 6:1, "in the year that 
king Uzziah died" (740 B. C.) ; 7: 1, "in the days of 
Ahaz" (735ff. B. C.) ; 14:28, "in the year that'king 
Ahaz died" (727 B. C.) ; 20: 1, "in the year that Tartan 
came unto Ashdod, when S argon the king of Assyria sent 
him" (711 B. C.) ; 36: 1, "in the fourteenth year of king 
Hezekiah" (701 B. C). These points are all in strict 
chronological order. 

2. Isaiah's great individual messages are also ar- 
ranged in true historical sequence; thus, chapters 1-6 
for the most part belong to the last years of Jotham's 
reign (740-736 B. C.) ; chapters 7-12, to the period of 
the Syro-Ephraimitic war (734 B. C.) ; chapter 20, to 
the year of Sargon's siege of Ashdod (711 B. C.) ; chap- 
ters 28-32, to the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib 
(701 B. C.) ; while the distinctively promissory portions 
(chapters 40-66), as is natural, conclude the collection. 

3. In several instances, however, there are notable 
departures from a rigid chronological order. For ex- 
ample, chapter 6, which describes the prophet's initial 
call to preach, follows the rebukes and denunciations of 
chapters 1-5; but this is probably due to its being used 
by the prophet as an apologetic. Having pronounced 
"woes" upon others (5:8-23), he pauses to assure his 



48 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



hearers that he first pronounced "woe" upon himself 
(6:5). 

4. Again, the oracles against foreign nations in 
chapters 13-23, though belonging to various dates, are 
grouped together. This is doubtless due, to some extent 
at least, to their subject matter. Likewise, chapters 
38-39, which give an account of Hezekiah's sickness and 
Merodach-Baladan's embassy to him (714-712 B. C), 
chronologically precede chapters 36-37, which describe 
Sennacherib's investment of Jerusalem (701 B. C). 
This order, however, is due probably to the desire to 
make chapters 36-37 (about Sennacherib) an appro- 
priate conclusion to chapters 1-35 (which are chiefly 
about Assyria), and on the other hand, to make chapters 
38-39 (about Merodach-Baladan) a suitable introduction 
to chapters 40-66 (which speak of Babylon). 

SECOND DAY— Isaiah's Earliest Messages (Chapters 1-6) 

1. The attempt to date Isaiah's individual prophecies, 
on the basis of internal criteria alone, is a well-nigh im- 
possible task; and yet no other evidence is available. 
Oftentimes passages stand side by side which point in 
opposite directions; in fact, certain sections seem to be 
composed of various fragments dating from different 
periods, as though prophecies widely separated from 
each other in time had been fused together. In such 
cases much weight should be given to those features 
which point to an early origin, because of the predomi- 
natingly predictive character of Isaiah's writings. 
Isaiah always had an eye upon the future. His semi- 
historical and biographical prophecies are naturally the 
easiest to date; on the other hand, the form of his Mes- 
sianic and eschatological discourses is largely due to his 



ARRANGEMENT OF PROPHECIES 49 



own personal temper and psychology, rather than to the 
historical circumstances of the time. Fortunately, the 
exact dating of any given prophecy while a desideratum 
is not absolutely essential. 

2. Chapters 1-6, barring certain unimportant edito- 
rial additions, are probably Isaiah's earliest messages 
to Judah and Jerusalem, dating from the reign of Jotham 
(740-736 B. C). They breathe the atmosphere of 
Jotham's period; prosperity and abundance (2: 7), elabo- 
rate sacrifices (1: 11), extravagant dress and ostentation 
(3:16-24), excessive indulgence in wine and strong 
drink, avarice and self-confidence (5: 8-23). The inter- 
spersed descriptions of desolation (1: 7), ruin (3:8), 
captivity (5: 13), and of a remnant (6: 13), on the other 
hand, are anticipatory of impending issues which the 
prophet at this very early period of his ministry fore- 
saw. The prophet often fused "the actual present with 
the expected future"; always speaking as a poet in the 
elevated style of a seer; seeing the issues of cause and 
effect even before Jehovah began to send enemies against 
Judah (2 Kings 15: 37). 

THIRD DAY— Prophecies in Connection with the Syro- 
Ephraimitic War of 734 B. C. (Chapters 7-12; 17) 

1. Some of Isaiah's most powerful messages were 
inspired by the circumstances of the crisis in 734 B. C, 
when Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus came up 
against Jerusalem and threatened to dethrone King Ahaz 
because he refused to ally himself with them against 
Assyria. Chapters 7-12 and 17 seem to belong, for the 
most part, to this date. 

2. Ahaz, youthful and inexjDerienced, is on the point 
of sending to Assyria for help against his foes to the 
north (2 Kings 16:7), when Isaiah, at the bidding of 



50 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



Jehovah, approaches to remonstrate with him against a 
policy so obviously suicidal (7:1 — 9:7). Isaiah thus 
appears in the new role of a practical statesman, warn- 
ing the king against the short-sighted policy of making 
friends with Assyria, and urging that he put his trust 
in Jehovah. 

3. Chapters 9:8 — 10:4 also belong to this period; 
warning Ephraim of the sure consequences of arrogance, 
which will lead to fire-devouring anarchy. 

4. Chapter 10:5-34 predicts the ultimate downfall 
of the proud Assyrian, who is but the "rod" of divine 
wrath (after 734 B. C). This is followed by a Mes- 
sianic passage of comfort in chapter 11, in which the 
prophet promises a return of the exiles, "from the four 
corners of the earth," and a second exodus "after the 
manner of Egypt." The references to Egypt in 10: 24, 
26 and 11: 15, 16 would hardly be as natural after the 
rise of a strong Egyptian party in Jerusalem, such as 
existed in the latter years of Hezekiah; and 11: 13 cer- 
tainly points in the direction of 734 B. C. Chapter 12 
is an ode of thanksgiving put by the prophet into the 
mouth of the redeemed remnant, and most fittingly con- 
cludes the Messianic picture of chapter 11. 

5. Chapter 17, which deals with the outcome of the 
war in its effects upon Syria and Ephraim, only "glean- 
ings" being left (v. 6), belongs also to this crisis; the 
oracle closes, like 9' 8 — 10: 4, with an announcement that 
Assyria, the despoiler, will in turn be despoiled himself 
(vs. 12-14). 

FOURTH DAY— Prophecies between 734 and 722 B. C. 
(Chapters 13-14 and 23-27) 

1. Modern expositors usually regard the prophet's 
years between 734 and 732 B. C. as years of inactivity, 



ARRANGEMENT OF PROPHECIES 51 



assigning to this period no prophecies at all, or at most 
only a few verses. But it seems quite improbable that 
a prophet of Isaiah's type should have remained inactive 
during such a critical period. On the contrary, it may 
safely be assumed that he improved these years in train- 
ing and instructing his "disciples." 

2. In his earlier utterances (11: 11, 12) he had made 
mention of foreign nations such as Philistia, Edom, Moab, 
Ammon, and the Arabians; he now addresses to them 
individual messages after the tenor of chapter 2 : 2-4, 
with all the severity of an Amos (chapters 1-2), the ten- 
derness of a Jeremiah (chapters 47-51), and the vision 
of an Ezekiel (chapters 25-32). These he probably 
committed to the custody of his own inner circle. 

3. The first prophecy to spring out of the events of 
734-732 B. C, when Tiglath-pileser stripped Israel of 
Gilead and Galilee, and captured Damascus, is the much 
disputed prophecy in 13:2 — 14:23, whose title reads, 
"The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz 
did see." Following it, there is a brief prophecy which 
explicitly mentions "Assyria" as the object of Jehovah's 
destruction (14:24-27). The title of chapters 13-14, 
therefore, as in the case of chapter 17, is hardly expres- 
sive of the oracle's true scope; chapters 13-14 are really 
directed against both Babylonia and Assyria; and it is 
acknowledged now even by Winckler and Cheyne that 
no Babylonian king answers the description of 14: 4fF. 

4. The prophecy against Philistia (14:28-32) bears 
the very appropriate title, "In the year that king Ahaz 
died" (727 B. C). In this oracle the prophet rebukes 
Philistia for rejoicing over the death of Tiglath-pileser, 
who, as Jehovah's "rod," had smitten her. 

5. Isaiah's vision in these early years probably ex- 
tended further (chapters 24-27). Isaiah sees that before 



52 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



Assyria is destroyed she will be used of Jehovah to bring 
desolation, not only to Syria and Israel, but to the whole 
land (24:3). Cities will fall (24:12; 25:2), Moab 
will be trodden down (25: 10), and the remnant of the 
nation will come from Assyria and Egypt (27: 13), 
while in Mount Zion Jehovah will make a feast of fat 
things unto all nations (25: 6). Chapters 24-27 contain 
this vision and, in the writer's judgment, are best ex- 
plained as arising during the years just prior to 722 
B. C. 

6. The oracle against Tyre (chapter 23) seems to 
precede the great sweeping invasions made by Shalmane- 
ser IV., Sargon II. and Sennacherib, and therefore 
belongs to this same period (before 722 B. C). 

FIFTH DAY— During the Reign of Sargon, 722-705 B. C. 
(Chapters 15-16, 19-22, 38-39) 

1. The oracle against Egypt (chapter 19) is best 
explained as arising out of the year 720 B. C, when 
Sargon humbled Egypt at Raphia. The prophet here 
draws a vivid picture of Egypt's political, material and 
social decay; but he also promises that she will be con- 
verted to Jehovah. 

2. Chapters 38-39^ which tell of Hezekiah's sickness 
and Merodach-Baladan's embassy of congratulation upon 
his recovery, belong most probably to the years 714 and 
712 B. C, respectively. 

3. The oracle against Moab (chapters 15-16) is best 
assigned to the period just preceding 711 B. C, when 
Sargon returned to Palestine, as he tells us, to punish 
"Philistia, Judah, Edom and Moab" for speaking treason. 
Possibly Isaiah had delivered the bulk of this oracle on 
a previous occasion, to which "now" he adds an important 



ARRANGEMENT OF PROPHECIES 53 



prediction (16: 13-14). Chapter 20 predicts Assyria's 
victory over Egypt and Ethiopia in 711 B. C. 

4. The brief, enigmatical oracles against Seir 
(21: 1 1„ 12) and Arabia (21:13-17) probably belong 
to this same date, as Sargon received tribute from them 
in the year 711 B. C. ; likewise the prophet's trenchant 
rebuke to the citizens of Jerusalem (22: 1-14) for their 
levity and indifferent abandon, while Sargon's troops 
were standing before Jerusalem's gates. 

5. The oracle of "the wilderness of the sea/' i.e., 
Babylon (21:1-10), evidently describes the siege of 
Babylon in 709 B. C, when Sargon finally succeeded 
in rescuing the city from the indomitable usurper, Mero- 
dach-Baladan. Babylon's fate would especially interest 
Jerusalem if Hezekiah, as is probable, made an alliance 
in 712 B. C. with Merodach-Baladan's embassy of con- 
gratulation to him upon his recovery from sickness. 
Probably the prophecy concerning the deposition of 
Shebna from his position as comptroller of the palace 
(22:15-25) was also delivered about this time (711 
B. C). 

SIXTH DAY— Prior to and during the Siege of 701 B. C. 
(Chapters 28-37, 18) 

1. Chapters 28-32 (excepting verses 1-6 of chapter 28, 
which are earlier) clearly belong to the time shortly prior 
to 701 B. C. They record the prophet's earnest and oft 
repeated expostulations against the folly of depending 
on Egypt. They are frequently interspersed with 
gleams of hope for the remnant of Judah and brilliant 
pictures of the Messianic future. The Assyrian, on the 
contrary, will be utterly destroyed. 

2. Chapter 18, containing a prophecy against Ethiopia, 



54 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



describes the terror in the Nile valley which Sennacherib 
produced by his approach in 701 B. C. 

3. Chapter 33, one of the grandest of all Isaiah's 
prophecies, describes in advance the actual deliverance 
of Jerusalem in 701 B. C. Chapters 36-37 explain the 
historical steps by which the capital became invested and 
was eventually delivered, containing a prophecy by Isaiah 
(37 : 22-85) in which Jerusalem proudly mocks her arro- 
gant assailants who are so soon to go down before the 
angel of Jehovah. 

4. Chapters 34-35 are a proclamation to the nations 
to behold the spectacle of Assyria's overwhelming defeat. 
So shall all Zion's enemies perish; Edom in particular is 
doomed to perpetual ruin and solitude. Israel's lot, on 
the contrary, will be one of happiness and everlasting j oy. 

SEVENTH DAY— After the Crisis of 701 B. C. 
(Chapters 40-66) 

1. Through Jehovah's interposition Sennacherib was 
forced to return to Nineveh without actually capturing 
Jerusalem. The merest remnant of the kingdom of 
Judah was left in the land. Sennacherib claims to have 
taken over 200,000 captives from Judah. Twenty years 
before, Sargon had transplanted the choicest of North 
Israel to the far East. 

2. The time had now come to comfort Zion (chapters 
40-66). Primarily these wonderful prophecies were ad- 
dressed to the remnant of Isaiah's own period, at home 
and scattered abroad. The history of criticism has 
demonstrated that no other single period in all of Israel's 
history so well accounts for their origin as the period of 
Isaiah ; and to break them up into various fragments and 
deny their unity, is, as Dillmann characteristically re- 
marks, "diseased reflection." 



ARRANGEMENT OF PROPHECIES 55 



3. The prophet's standpoint in chapters 40-66 is 
that of Isaiah himself. For if Isaiah before 734 B. C, 
in passages confessedly his own, could describe Judah's 
cities as already "burned with fire/' Zion as deserted as 
"a booth in a vineyard'' (1:7, 8), Jerusalem as "ruined/' 
Judah as "fallen" (3:8), and Jehovah's people as al- 
ready "gone into captivity" (5: 13), surely after all the 
destruction and devastation wrought on Judah by 
Assyria in the years 722, 720, 711, and 701 B. C, the 
same prophet with the same poetic license could declare 
that the temple had been "trodden down" (63: 18) and 
"burned with fire/' and all Judah's pleasant places "laid 
waste" (64: 11) ; and, in perfect keeping with his former 
promises, could add that "they shall repair the waste 
cities, the desolations of many generations (61 : 4, cf. 
44: 26; 58: 12). 

4. Or, again, if Isaiah the son of Amoz could comfort 
Jerusalem with promises of protection when the Assyrian 
(734 B. C.) should come like an overflowing river (8: 9, 
10; 10: 24, 25), and conceive a beautiful parable of com- 
fort like that contained in 28 : 23-29, and insert among 
his warnings and exhortations of that gloomy time 
(702 B. C.) so many precious promises of a brighter 
future which was sure to follow Sennacherib's invasion 
(29: 17-24; 30:29ff; 31:8), and, in the very midst of 
the siege, conceive of such marvelous Messianic visions 
as those in 33: 17-24 with which to dispel the dismay of 
his compatriots ; surely the same prophet would probably 
seize the opportunity to comfort those of Zion who sur- 
vived the great catastrophe of 701 B. C. The prophet 
who had done the one thing was prepared to do the other. 

5. But there was one circumstance of the prophet's 
position after 701 B. C. which was new, and which he 
did not and indeed could not have employed as an argu- 



56 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



ment in enforcing his messages prior to the Assyrian s 
overthrow and Jerusalem's deliverance, namely, the ful- 
filment of previous predictions. Over and over again in 
these last chapters Isaiah appeals to Jehovah's power to 
predict, pointing victoriously to the fulfilment of former 
predictions as a proof of Jehovah's deity. 

6. From such passages we obtain an idea of the 
prophet's true historical position (42:9; 44:8; 45:21; 
46: 10; 48: 3). Old predictions have already been ful- 
filled (6: 11-13; 29:5; SO: SI; SI: 8; 37: 7, 30), on the 
basis of which the prophet ventures to predict new and 
even more astounding things concerning the overthrow 
of Babylon by Cyrus, and Israel's return from exile 
(43:6). Isaiah's book is signally full of predictions 
(7:8,16; 8:4,8;9: II, 12; 10:26-34; 14:24-27; 16: 14; 
17:9, 12-14; 20:4-6; 21:15-17; 22:19ff.; 23:15; 
38:5); some of which, written down and sealed, were 
evidently committed by the prophet to his inner circle of 
disciples to be used and verified by them in subsequent 
times (8: 16). 

7. In view of these considerations, therefore, and 
others which might be enumerated, the writer ventures, 
at the risk of being reproached for undue conservatism, 
to assign chapters 40-66 to the period just following 
701 B. C. as the most suitable historical background 
known. 



The Grass Withereth,, the Flower Fadeth; but the Word 
of Our God Shall Stand Foreveb. 

Isa. 40:8. 

For the Mountains may Depart, and the Hills be 
Removed; but My Lovingkindness Shall not Depart from 
Thee, neither Shall My Covenant of Peace be Removed, 
Saith Jehovah That hath Mercy on Thee. 

Isa. 54:10. 

And All Thy Children Shall be Taught of Jehovah; and 
Great Shall be the Peace of Thy Children. 

Isa. 54: 13. 



STUDY FIVE 



THE CRITICAL PROBLEM 
FIRST DAY— The Status Questionis 

1. "For nearly twenty-five centuries no one dreamt 
of doubting that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, was the author 
of every part of the book that goes under his name." 
(A. B. Davidson, Old Testament Prophecy, p. 244.) 
Recently, however, certain writers have appealed to 
2 Chron. 36: 22ff. as external proof that Isa. 40-66 ex- 
isted as a separate collection in the days of the chronicler 
(ca. 300 B. C), but the evidence obtained from this 
source is so doubtful that it is well-nigh valueless. 

2. Those who deny the integrity of the book may be 
divided into two groups, moderates and radicals. For 
the sake of setting forth as simply as possible the present 
state of the Isaiah problem, we will give in the first 
instance the chapters and verses which are commonly 
rejected by moderates as non-Isaianic, and in the second 
instance, the chapters and verses which are allowed even 
by radicals to be the genuine prophecies of Isaiah. 

8. The moderate section of the critical school, which 
is best represented by Drs. Driver, G. A. Smith, Skinner, 
Kirkpatrick, Konig, A. B. Davidson, and Whitehouse, 
practically agrees that the following chapters and verses 
are not Isaiah's: 11:10-16; 12:1-6; 13:1—14:23; 15: 
1—16: 12; 21: 1-10; 24-27; 34-35; 36-39; 40-66. That 
is to say, some forty-four chapters out of the whole num- 
ber, sixty-six, were not written by Isaiah. 

4. The radical wing of the critical school, which is 
represented by Drs. Cheyne, Duhm, Hackmann, Guthe 



60 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



and Marti, rejects approximately 1030 verses out of the 
total 1292 in the book, retaining the following only as 
the genuine product of Isaiah and his age: 1 : 2-26, 29-31 ; 
2:6-19; 3:1, 5, 8, 9, 12-17, 24; 4:1; 5:1-14, 17-29; 
6:1-13; 7:1—8:22; 9:8—10:9; 10:13, 14, 27-32; 
14: 24-32; 17: 1-14; 18: 1-6; 20: 1-6; 22: 1-22; 28: 1-4, 
7-22; 29: 1-6, 9, 10, 13-15; 30: 1-17; 31: 1-4. That is, 
only about 262 verses out of the total 1292 are allowed 
to be genuine. 

SECOND DAY— The Fundamental Axiom of Criticism 

1. The fundamental principle which underlies all 
modern criticism of Old Testament prophecy is the two- 
fold axiom or postulate that a prophet always spoke out 
of a definite historical situation to the present needs of 
the people among whom he lived; and that a definite 
historical situation shall be pointed out for each prophecy. 

2. This principle in general is sound; but it must 
be accompanied with certain cautions equally essential: 

(1) Not every prophecy can be traced, independently 
of its context, to a definite historical situation (cf. Joel 
3; Zech. 9-14). Moreover, the prophets often speak in 
poetry, and, therefore, in language which should not be 
taken literally. 

(2) It is not always the greatest event in a nation's 
history, or the event about which we in our time happen 
to know the most, or even the event which best fits the 
phraseology of any particular prophecy, that may 
actually have given birth to it. Israel's history was full 
of crises. 

(3) While it is true that in the great majority of cases 
the prophets spoke directly and practically to the needs 



THE CRITICAL PROBLEM 61 



of their own generation, it is also true, in the case of 
Isaiah at least, that the prophet commanded, "Bind thou 
up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples" 
(8: 16), that is, preserve my teachings for the future. 
Compare Isa. 30: 8, "Now go, write it before them on 
a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the 
time to come forever and ever/' As Paul's great doc- 
trine of justification by faith was first discovered by 
Augustine and emphasized by Luther, so Isaiah obviously 
spoke words of comfort to his own generation which to us 
seem to have been directed primarily to the captives in 
Babylonian exile, but which may have been delivered to 
a much earlier generation. Thus the comforting mes- 
sages of chapters 40-66 need not have been without great 
ethical and practical import to Isaiah's own contempo- 
raries at the close of the eighth century B. C, while a 
century and a half later, also, they may have brought 
consolation to the Israelites in exiles. (For a discussion 
of "Cyrus" see Study Twelve, Fifth Day.) 

THIRD DAY— Other Governing Criteria 

1. There are other governing criteria which lead 
some critics to reject various portions of Isaiah as sub- 
sequent to the prophet's own age. Only a few examples 
can be given by way of illustration: 

(1) To one critic "the conversion of the heathen" lay 
quite beyond the horizon of any eighth century prophet 
and consequently Isa. 2 : 2-4 and all similar passages 
should be relegated to a subsequent age. 

(2) To another "the picture of universal peace" in 
Isa. 11: 1-9 is a symptom of a late date, and therefore 
the section must be deleted. 



62 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



(3) To another the thought of universal judgment 
upon "the whole earth" in chapter 14:26 quite tran- 
scends Isaiah's range of thought. 

(4) To still another the apocalyptic character of 
chapters 24-27 represents a phase of Hebrew thought 
which prevailed in Israel only after Ezekiel. 

(5) Even to those who are considered moderates the 
poetic character of a passage like chapter 12 and the 
reference to a return from captivity as in 11 : 11-16, and 
the promises and consolations such as are found in chap- 
ter 33, are cited as grounds for assigning these and kin- 
dred passages to a much later age. Radicals deny in 
toto the existence of Messianic passages in Isaiah's 
own prophecies. 

2. But, to deny to Isaiah of the eighth century all 
catholicity of grace, all universalism of salvation, every 
highly developed Messianic ideal, every rich note of 
promise and comfort, all sublime faith in the sacrosanct 
character of Zion, as some do, is unwarrantably to create 
a new Isaiah of greatly reduced proportions, a mere 
preacher of inflexible righteousness, a statesman of not 
very optimistic vein, and the exponent of a cold ethical 
religion without the warmth and glow of the messages 
of salvation which characterize Isaiah, the prophet of 
the eighth century; if indeed he actually composed the 
book ascribed to him. 

FOURTH DAY— The Writer's Personal Attitude 

1. More and more the writer is persuaded that broad 
facts must decide the unity or collective character of 
Isaiah's book. Verbal exegesis may do more harm than 
good. Greater regard must be paid to the structure of 



THE CRITICAL PROBLEM 



63 



the book, which is no mere anthology, or collection of 
independent discourses by different writers belonging to 
different periods. There is an obvious, though it may 
be to some extent an editorial, unity to Isaiah's prophe- 
cies. To regard them as a heterogeneous mass of mis- 
cellaneous oracles which were written at widely separated 
times and under varied circumstances from Isaiah's 
times down to the Maccabaean age, and revised and freely 
interpolated throughout the intervening centuries, is to 
lose sight of the great historic realities and perspective 
of the prophet. 

2. Not in the spirit of an antiquated apologist, there- 
fore, but rather as a contribution to historical criticism, 
the writer feels constrained to say, that to him chapter 
2: 2-4 is the key to Isaiah's horizon; that chapters 40-66 
are in germ wrapped up in the vision and commission of 
the prophet's inaugural call (chapter 6); and that the 
whole problem of how much or how little Isaiah wrote 
would become immensely simplified if critics would only 
divest themselves of a mass of unwarranted presuppo- 
sitions and arbitrary restrictions which fix hard and fast 
what each century can think and say. 

3. Accordingly, the writer's attitude is that of those 
who, while welcoming all ascertained results of investi- 
gation, decline to accejDt any mere conjecture or theories 
as final conclusions. And while he acknowledges his 
very great debt to critics of all latitudes, he nevertheless 
believes that the book of Isaiah, practically as we have 
it, may have been, and probably was, all written by 
Isaiah, the son of Amoz, in the latter half of the eighth 
century B. C. To what extent the editors revised and 
supplemented the prophet's discourses can never be 
definitely determined. 



64 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



FIFTH DAY— The History of Criticism 

1. The critical disintegration of the book of Isaiah 
began with Koppe, who in 1780 first doubted the gen- 
uineness of chapter 50. Doderlein in 1789 expressed 
decided suspicion as to the Isaianic origin of the whole 
of chapters 40-66. He was followed by B-osenmiiller, 
who was the first to deny to Isaiah the prophecy against 
Babylon in chapters 13:1 — 14:23. Eichhorn at the 
beginning of the last century further eliminated from 
the genuine prophecies of Isaiah the oracle against Tyre 
in chapter 23, and, with Gesenius and Ewald, denied the 
Isaianic origin of chapters 24-27. Gesenius also 
ascribed to some unknown prophet chapters 15 and 16, 
Rosenmiiller went further, and pronounced against chap- 
ters 34 and 35; and not long afterwards (1840), Ewald 
questioned chapters 12 and 33. Thus by the middle of 
the nineteenth century some thirty-seven or thirty-eight 
chapters were rejected as no part of Isaiah's actual 
writings. 

2. In 1879-80, the celebrated Leipzig professor, 
Franz Delitzsch, who for years previous had defended 
the genuineness of chapters 40-66, finally yielded to the 
modern critical position, and in the new edition of his 
commentary, published in 1889, interpreted these chap- 
ters, though with considerable hesitation, as coming from 
the close of the period of Babylonian exile. Shortly 
after this (1888-90), Canon Driver and Dr. George 
Adam Smith gave popular impetus to the new critical 
position in Great Britain. 

3. Since 1890, the criticism of Isaiah has been more 
trenchant and microscopic than ever before. Duhm, 
Stade, Guthe, Hackmann, Cornill and Marti on the conti- 
nent, and Cheyne, Gray and others in Great Britain and 



THE CRITICAL PROBLEM 65 



America, have questioned portions which hitherto were 
supposed to be genuine; rejecting, for example, all such 
promises of Messianic hope and salvation as are found 
in 2:2-5; 4:2-6; 9: 1-6; 11: 1-9- 

4. On the other hand, there have not been wanting in 
all these years able defenders of the unity of Isaiah's 
writings, e.g., Strachey (1874), Nagelsbach (1877), 
Bredenkamp (1887), Barnes (1891), Douglas (1895), 
W. H. Cobb (1883-1908), Green (1892), Vos (1898-99), 
and Thirtle (1907). 

SIXTH DAY—The Disintegration of "Deutero-Isaiah" 

1. The unity of chapters 40-66 has likewise vanished 
in the hands of critics. What prior to 1890 was sup- 
posed to be the unique product of some celebrated but 
anonymous sage designated as "Deutero-Isaiah," who 
lived in Babvlonia, is now commonlv divided between a 
Deutero-Isaiah who wrote only chapters 40-55, and a 
Trito-Isaiah, who wrote most but not all of chapters 

55- 66. 

2. At first it was thought sufficient to separate off 
chapters 63-66 as a later addition to the prophecies of 
Deutero-Isaiah; but more recently it has become the 
general fashion to distinguish between chapters 40-55, 
written in Babylonia (ca. 549-538 B. C), and chapters 

56- 66, written in Palestine (ca. 460-445 B. C). 

3. But most radical critics carry disintegration con- 
siderably farther even than this, especially in the case 
of chapters 56-66, which are not considered a unity. For 
example, chapters 60, 61-62, 63: 7 — 64: 12 are extremely 
difficult to date; while chapters 56: 9 — 57: 21 confessedly 
describe conditions which suit better the idolatrous con- 
ditions of either pre-exilic or very late post-exilic times. 



66 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



Opinions also conflict as to where these prophecies were 
written, whether in Babylonia, Palestine, Phoenicia, or 

Egypt, 

SEVENTH DAY— The Literary History of the Book 

1. When or how the book of Isaiah was edited and 
brought into its present form is unknown. Jesus Ben- 
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus 48:20-25), writing about 180 
B. C, cites Isaiah as one of the notable worthies of 
Hebrew antiquity, in whose days, he says, "the sun went 
backward and he added life to the king" (cf. Isa. 38: 4- 
8), and who "saw by an excellent spirit that which should 
come to pass at the last, and comforted them that mourned 
in Zion" (cf. Isa. 40:1; 61: 1-3 ; 41:21-24; 43:9-12; 
44:7-8; 46:10-11; 48:3-8). Evidently, therefore, at 
the beginning of the second century B. C, at the latest, 
the book of Isaiah had reached its present form. 

2. But there are signs of editorial work within the 
book of Isaiah which were probably due to the prophet 
himself: e.g., 8: 16, which points to a definite collection 
of prophecies, perhaps chapters 2-6 (cf. 30:8). The 
book seems to be made up of many small collections, 
three of which have distinct titles of authorship (1:1; 
2: 1; 13: 1). 

3. The prophet's "disciples" would naturally edit his 
prophecies after his death. Only on some such suppo- 
sition can we account for chapters 2-6 and 13-23 being 
ascribed to Isaiah, whose name must have been associated 
with these sections from the very first. 

4. On the other hand, there is absolutely no proof 
that chapters 1-39; or any other considerable section of 
his prophecies, ever existed by themselves as an inde- 
pendent collection; nor is there any ground for thinking, 



THE CRITICAL PROBLEM 



67 



as some allege,, that the promissory and Messianic por- 
tions have been systematically interpolated by editors 
long subsequent to the prophet's own time. For promise 
and comfort are not wanting from the two confessedly 
genuine portions in which Isaiah, using the first person, 
gives snatches of his own biography (6: 1-13; 8: 1-8). 



Come Now, and Let Us Reason Together, Saith Jehovah: 
Though Your Sins be as Scarlet, They Shall be as White 
as Snow; Though They be Red Like Crimson, They Shall 
be as Wool. 

Isa. 1:18. 

And He will Judge between the Nations, and will Decide 
Concerning Many Peoples; and They Shall Beat Their 
Swords into Plowshares, and Their Spears into Pruning 
Hooks; Nation Shall not Lift up Sword Against Nation, 
neither Shall They Learn War any More. 

Isa. 2:4. 



STUDY SIX 



JUDAH'S SOCIAL SINS (CHAPTERS 1-6) 
FIRST DAY— Formal Religion (Chapter 1) 

1. The dramatic discourse in chapter 1 contains a 
summary of all Isaiah's characteristic and essential 
teachings; and, therefore, is marvelously appropriate as 
an introduction to his book. 

2. It is one of the earliest of Isaiah's prophecies, 
dating probably from the reign of Jotham, when Syria 
and North Israel began to threaten Judah in 736 B. C. 
(cf. 2 Kings 15: 37). 

3. After the editorial title in v. 1, Isaiah describes 
the hopeless moral and religious condition of the nation 
(vs. 2-20), and the need of a purifying judgment (vs. 
21-31). 

4. Judah's sins are set forth as primarily and funda- 
mentally sins of religion. She has rebelled against God 
(v. 2). The whole nation is insensible to God's goodness. 
Conscience is asleep: "My people do not think" (v. 3) ; 
yet they keep up the hollow forms of ritual sacrifice 
(vs. 11, 12). A bad conscience easily resorts to hollow 
worship. 

5. The prophet bids them reform (vs. 16, 17) ; he 
even offers them gracious pardon (v. 18). But they 
remain stubborn and rebellious; accordingly he sings a 
dirge over Jerusalem in dirge meter (vs. 21-26), and 
warns them of approaching judgment: sin, he says, 
withers (v. 30) ; sin burns (v. 31). 

6. The paramount lessons of the discourse are the 
too oft-forgotten facts that true religion is the prime 



70 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



condition of a healthy social order; that irreligion or 
formal ritual is a social vice; that no man liveth to him- 
self; and that what a peasant or a prince believes is of 
public concern to all. 

7. All social evils are traceable ultimately to rebellion 
against God. 

SECOND DAY— The Sin of War (Chapter 2:1-4) 

1. War was imminent when the prophet wrote the 
well-known passage contained in 2:2-4 (736 B. C). 
Probably Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus were 
already planning to strike a death blow at Jerusalem. 

2. This same inspired vision has also been incor- 
porated by the collectors of prophecy among the writings 
of Isaiah's younger contemporary, Micah (4: 1-4). It 
is impossible to say with which of these prophets it was 
original, or whether both found it already at hand and 
used it. In any case, it is evidently a vision of eighth 
century origin. "It may have been the ideal of the age." 
(G. A. Smith.) Such a picture is marvelous coming from 
any age prior to the actual advent of the Prince of Peace. 

3. The passage is Messianic. The vision is of Zion 
exalted and idealized. All nations are seen voluntarily 
streaming up to Jerusalem to be taught Jehovah's law 
and to be instructed in his ways. Zion becomes the reli- 
gious metropolis of the world, Jehovah, the umpire in all 
international disputes. In the latter days, Isaiah pre- 
dicts, an era of universal peace will be ushered in, and 
war shall be no more. 

4. Such a vision is of permanent value. It was not 
only the ideal of Isaiah's age, it is the goal also of the 
gospel; the only difference being that through the Incar- 
nate Word of Jehovah, Zion has become spiritualized and 



JUDAH'S SOCIAL SINS 



71 



decentralized, so that the whole world, regardless of 
geography, shares in the Messianic blessings of idyllic 
peace. 

5, War is the arch-enemy of all social happiness, 

THIRD DAY— Foreign Customs and Alliances 
(Chapter 2: 5-22) 

1. When Isaiah first beheld the vision of Jerusalem 
exalted as the Mecca of all nations in religion and law 
(2 : 2-4), he hoped to see his ideal realized at once (v. 5) ; 
but the real Jerusalem of his day fell too far below his 
ideal. 

2. Before the prophet stood a crowd of soothsayers; 
yonder a company "filled with customs from the east" 
(Babylonia) ; while the politicians of Jerusalem were 
openly courting the friendship and support of Assyria. 

S. Accordingly, he breaks out in a vehement diatribe 
against the nation's feverish lust for things foreign: in 
particular their eagerness to trust to foreign alliances in 
time of danger (v. 6). He also denounces their wanton 
display of wealth and confidence in their military re- 
sources (v. 7) ; and their gross idolatry, which has per- 
meated every stratum of society beyond the possibility of 
forgiveness (vs. 8-11). 

4. The prophet's chief point is, that Jerusalem's best 
interests are being jeopardized through her foolishly 
aping foreign customs, her worshiping foreign gods, and 
her making alliances with foreign peoples, instead of 
relying on God. 

5. For Jerusalem, therefore, he declares that a day 
of reckoning is appointed (v. 12), when Jehovah will 
punish her proud and haughty inhabitants (note the 



72 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



emphatic refrain repeated thrice in vs. 10, 19* 21). Then 
they will cast their idols to the moles and to the bats 
(v. 20). 

6. The only real safety in all social crises is trust in 
God. 

FOURTH DAY— The Sins of the Aristocracy 
(Chapters 3-4) 

1. The nation's chief sinners are those of the upper 
classes, the very ones to whom the people are looking for 
protection and guidance. Boldly and vehemently the 
prophet reproaches these (3:1-4) — the army and its 
officers, the cabinet officials, judges and law givers, the 
professional prophets, and the diviners and skillful en- 
chanters — because they have provoked by their unblush- 
ing wickedness the eyes of Jehovah's glory (3:8, 9). 
That is to say, the soothsayers have sought to ascertain 
the will of deity and the magicians have sought to control 
that will, ignoring Jehovah. 

2. All such dignitaries and so-called props of the 
commonwealth will be removed and a reign of terror will 
ensue. Society will be dissolved. In place of the elders 
and princes who now despoil the poor (3: 14), still more 
incompetent and capricious officers will rule, until anarchy 
destroys the state and Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is 
fallen (3:8). 

3. Isaiah also draws a picture of the women of Jeru- 
salem (cf. Amos 4), painting them as "state dolls/' who 
by their baneful influence on the government (3: 12) and 
their unbounded love of finery are undermining religion 
and morals in the home and poisoning the entire national 
life. He gives a catalogue of the twenty-one articles 
of their costly and curious attire (3: 18-23), and sternly 



JUDAH'S SOCIAL SINS 



73 



warns the proud ladies of Zion that all their gaudy para- 
phernalia will ere long be exchanged for captives' garb 
(3: 24— 4: 1). 

4. He further assures them that Jerusalem shall be 
cleansed of their social filth and that a mere remnant shall 
survive (4: 2-6), who, however, shall be the people's true 
glory in the eyes of the other nations (cf. 32:15-18; 
45: 8; 61: 10). 

FIFTH DAY— Judah's National Sins (Chapter 5) 

1. The beautiful parable of the vineyard in 5:1-7 
stands closely related both to what precedes and to that 
which follows. Alas ! when Jehovah looked that his 
vineyard should bring forth grapes, it brought forth 
wild grapes (v. 4) ; and when he 'looked for justice 
(mishpat), behold bloodshed (inispah), and for right- 
eousness (sedakah), behold a cry of wrong (seakah)" 
Isaiah frequently employs paranomasia, or play on words, 
as here in 5:7. 

2. He then names a few specimens of "wild grapes/' 
or sins of the nation: 

(1) Insatiable greed; but their crops will be only a 
tenth of the seed sown (vs. 8-10). 

(2) Dissipation and disregard of the word and work 
of Jehovah; but carnival and carousing will end in cap- 
tivity (vs. 11-17). 

(3) Daring defiance of Jehovah, and willful contempt 
of the prophet's denunciations, boldly displayed by their 
challenging the "day of Jehovah" to come (vs. 18, 19). 

(4) Hypocrisy and dissimulation, confusion of moral 
distinctions (v. 20). 

(5) Political self-conceit, which scorns to submit to 
God's correction (v. 21). 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



(6) Misdirected power/ heroic at wine drinking, but 
cowering before a bribe in avenging wrong (vs. 22-23). 

3. Therefore, says the prophet, the worst is yet to 
come. Judah's national vitality is being sapped (v. 24), 
and a terrible invader (the Assyrian, as yet unnamed) is 
coming to smite them. It is Jehovah's judgment, and 
there will be no escape (vs. 25-30), 

SIXTH DAY— The Sins of the Masses (Chapter 6) 

1. Chapter 6 contains an account of Isaiah's inaugu- 
ral vision. It follows a discourse full of "woes/' which, 
as we have seen, closes with a thunderstorm of doom 
unrelieved by any ray of hope (chapter 5). 

2. One can easily fancy how the prophet, having 
spoken thus, would meet with counter opposition from 
his audience, and find it necessary to produce his cre- 
dentials and demonstrate his authority for speaking in 
tones of such severity. No one, however, could give 
better proof of his commission than Isaiah. He had 
beheld a vision of Jehovah's holiness in contrast to his 
own unholiness ; he had also received pardon, and been 
commissioned. From this point of view, chapter 6 be- 
comes an apologetic. Embedded within it is the tacit 
claim of authority to pronounce "woes" upon others, 
because the prophet has already pronounced "woe" upon 
himself. This best accounts for the editorial insertion 
of this vision at this point among Isaiah's prophecies. 
"Unclean lips" was the nation's chief sin (6: 5). 

3. But Isaiah's commission was a hard one. We 
must not suppose that the prophet, from his subsequent 
experience, read into his original commission elements 
which it did not convey to his mind at the time; for, as 
Skinner wisely observes, "by doing so we mistake the 



JUDAH'S SOCIAL SINS 



75 



prophet's attitude to his work." From the very first 
Isaiah labored under the depressing conviction that he 
would only harden the people in unbelief (6:9-13). 

4. This was as obvious as it was inevitable. Sin, 
like water, percolates most rapidly downward. The 
upper classes were already callous in unbelief ; it was, 
therefore, only a matter of time when the masses also 
should become insensible to spiritual things: their hearts 
fat, their ears heavy, and their eyes smeared. 

SEVENTH DAY— Summary of Isaiah's Social Discourses 

1. All social evils are traceable ultimately to a want 
of true religion: apathy towards, and rebellion against 
God. Formal religion is but a common species of hypoc- 
risy (chapter 1). 

2. Social happiness is rendered impossible by war; 
therefore, to have satisfactory social conditions there 
must be peace (2: 1-4). 

5. Foreign alliances, soothsaying and idolatry are 
all proofs of distrust in God. "Blessed is the nation 
whose God is Jehovah" (2: 5-22). 

4. Woe to the nation whose political and religious 
leaders are corrupt. The next step is anarchy, and 
after that, exile. Double woe when the leading women 
of a community think only of fashion and of self, of 
bracelets and head-tires, festival robes and mantles, 
shawls and veils ; ruin then is dangerously near. 

5. Judah's national sins were outstanding, namely, 
oppression and wrong-doing (5:7)^ inordinate greed 
(5: 8), careless high-living (5: 11), blatant unbelief in a 
divine Providence (5: 18), willful self-deception (5: 20), 
unwillingness to be criticised (5: 21), bribery or "graft" 



76 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



(5: 22, 23). Such a nation of sinners was ill prepared 
to resist a foreign foe (5: 24-30). 

6. The sins of the aristocracy filter downward; as 
patricians, so plebeians. Judah's condition was well-nigh 
hopeless. The whole nation was becoming spiritually 
insensible. They had eyes but they could not see. Only 
judgment could avail — "the righteous judgment of the 
forgotten God." A "holy seed/' however, still existed 
in Israel's stock (6: 13) 



Therefore the Lord Himself will Give You a Sign: behold 
a Virgin Shall Conceive, and Bear a Son, and Shall Call 
His Name Immanuel. 

Isa. 7:14. 



For unto Us a Child is Born, unto Us a Son is Given; 
and the Government Shall be upon His Shoulder: and His 
Name Shall be Called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, 
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Isa. 9:6. 



Therefore with Joy Shall Ye Draw Water Out of the 
Wells of Salvation. 

Isa. 12:3. 



STUDY SEVEN 



JUDAH'S POLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS 
(CHAPTERS 7-12) 

FIRST DAY— The Syro-Ephraimitic Uprising 
(Chapter 7:1-9) 

1. The so-called Syro-Ephraimitic war of 734 B. C. 
is one of the very great crises in Isaiah's ministry. Side 
by side stood the young prophet of perhaps thirty years, 
and the still younger king of not more than twenty-one, 
with policies diametrically opposed. Pekah of North 
Israel and Rezin of Damascus, in attempting to defend 
themselves against the Assyrians, coveted an ally in the 
king of Jerusalem. But Ahaz preferred the friendship 
of Assyria, and refused to enter into alliance with them; 
as Jotham seems to have done before him (2 Kings 
15: 37). 

2. Accordingly Pekah and Rezin combined to de- 
throne Ahaz and to put in his place one who would ally 
with them (Isa. 7:6). But when news came of their 
threatened attack Ahaz was panic-stricken and all Jeru- 
salem with him (7:2). He resolved to apply at once 
to Assyria for assistance, sending ambassadors with many 
precious treasures, both royal and sacred (2 Kings 
16:7, 8). 

3. At this juncture Isaiah is bidden by Jehovah to 
take his son, Shear-j ashub, and go forth to meet King 
Ahaz, who is busy preparing for siege, repairing the 
fortifications and in particular securing the city's water 
supply. The prophet obeys, and expostulates with Ahaz 



80 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



concerning the fatal step he is about to take by calling 
in the aid of Assyria, and assures him that the two petty 
kingdoms of North Israel and Syria are but "two tails 
of smoking firebrands" (7:3, 4). On the one side, it 
is only Rezin with Damascus, and the mere son of Rema- 
liah with Samaria ; whereas, on the other side is Jehovah 
with Jerusalem (7:8, 9). 

4. Here for the first time, Isaiah appears in the role 
of a practical statesman; a position which he continues 
to occupy all his life, and the duties of which he more 
and more influentially discharges. 

SECOND DAY— Ahaz, the King of No-Faith 
(Chapter 7:10-25) 

1. Isaiah in his interview with Ahaz emphasized 
faith; to the prophet faith meant security and quietness 
(7:4, 9). Isaiah saw clearly that the only path of 
safety was loyalty to Jehovah, and independence of 
foreign alliances. Hosea had previously advocated the 
same policy to North Israel (Hosea 14: 2, 3). 

2. But Ahaz did not possess this faculty of mind; 
wherefore, Jehovah graciously offers him a sign in order 
to make faith easy as possible. The king may choose 
either earthquake or lightning (7:11). Ahaz refuses 
both, in order afterwards not to be bound by God's word. 
He has a secret dread of the truth. Accordingly Jeho- 
vah unasked determines to give him a sign, a child, 
Immanuel, "God with us" (7: 14), the stages of whose 
life will reveal the rapid changes which will take place 
in the land of Judah in the near future. 

3. The passage is implicitly Messianic. The under- 
lying truth of the prophecy is the necessity of faith in 
Jehovah's power to save. Because of the king's un- 



POLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS 81 



belief, Judah is to become the theatre of war between 
Assyria and Egypt (7: 18, 19). The country will be 
left ravaged, depopulated and uncultivated, and become 
the hunting ground of nomads (7:21-25), all because 
of the short-sighted policy of Ahaz, the king of No- 
Faith. 

THIRD DAY— No Conspiracy Successful without God 
(Chapters 8: 1—9:7) 

1. By means of a great tablet, posted in a conspicuous 
place, bearing the motto Maher-shalal-hash-baz, "hast- 
ing to the spoil, hurrying to the prey," Isaiah announced 
publicly the issue of Assyria's attack on Damascus 
(732 B. C). Isaiah also appropriated the motto as a 
living sign, naming his newborn son Maher-shalal-hash- 
baz (8: 1-4). 

2. Judah he predicts will barely escape; for she has 
despised the softly flowing waters of Shiloh — the symbol 
of Jehovah's silent power and gracious rule — for the 
waters of the river Euphrates— the power of Assyria 
(8:5-8). 

3. Yet "God is with us," proclaims the prophet, and 
conspiracy is impossible unless God too is against us. 
With God on our side as a sanctuary, there is no reason 
for fear; the only possible conspiracy is when Jehovah 
fights against us on the side of the enemy (9: 9-15). 

4. However, the prophet's message of promise and 
salvation finds no welcome. It must therefore remain 
bound up and sealed, i.e., committed to Isaiah's disciples 
for future use (8: 16-18). Nevertheless out of the 
coming darkness will flash forth eventually a great light: 
'Tor unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." In 
his day, the empire of David will be established upon a 



82 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



basis of justice and righteousness (8:19 — 9:7). The 
Messianic scion is the ground of the prophet's hope; 
which hope, though unappreciated, he thus early in his 
ministry commits, written and sealed, to his inner circle 
of "disciples/' 

FOURTH DAY— Accumulated Wrath 
(Chapters 9:8—10:4) 

1. In an artistic poem composed of four strophes, 
the prophet describes the great calamities which Jehovah 
has sent upon North Israel to warn them of their wicked- 
ness. Each strophe closes with an awful but most effect- 
ive refrain, "for all this his anger is not turned away, 
but his hand is stretched out still" (9: 12, 17, 21 ; 10: 4; 
cf. 5: 25). 

2. But Jehovah's judgments have gone unheeded, 
although North Israel has already suffered untold mis- 
fortunes (cf. Amos 4:6-11). Isaiah specifies some of 
them and foretells others yet to come: 

(1) Foreign invasion; but loss of territory made no 
lasting impression upon their arrogant and stubborn 
hearts (9: 8-12). 

(2) Defeat in battle; but even the loss of their young 
men and the cries of their suffering widows and orphans 
did not bring them to repentance (9-' 13-17). 

(3) Anarchy; but even internecine strife, raging like 
a blazing forest fire, was not sufficient to cause them to 
take heed (9: 18-21). 

(4) Now captivity stares them in the face; yet with 
the day of visitation confronting them, and with the 
prospect of condemnation from the Supreme Judge, and 
with no possibility of escape, they still persist in their 
downward course (10: 1-4). 



POLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS 83 



3. "For all this his anger is not turned away, but his 
hand is stretched out still." Divine discipline has 
failed; only judgment remains. 

FIFTH DAY — Assyria, an Instrument of Jehovah 
(Chapter 10:5-34) 

1. Chapter 10:5-34 dates also from the reign of 
Ahaz. Verse 20 is decidedly in favor of this view; 
verses 28-32 do not describe Sennacherib's route of inva- 
sion in 701 B. C, but rather that of the great Assyrian 
conqueror, as, in Isaiah's mind, he would naturally plan 
it after taking Samaria. Moreover, the tone of verses 
12, 21-23 shows that the Assyrians' devastation of the 
land is not yet complete; while 2 Chron. 28:20, 21 
describes the exact conditions which the prophecy de- 
mands as an appropriate historic setting, namely, that 
instead of Judah receiving help from the Assyrians, the 
Assyrians treated the Judeans as enemies. 

2. The prophet's main point is that the great Assy- 
rian despot is but the unconscious rod of Jehovah's 
anger, a mere instrument in God's hands, with which he 
is going to punish his people. In his carnal self-confi- 
dence and barbarous lust of plunder and conquest, the 
Assyrian may boast of his achievements, but he is really 
nothing more than an axe or a saw in the hands of the 
divine Woodsman, who will lay him low so soon as he has 
accomplished his purpose (10: 5-19; cf. "Cyrus," 45: 4). 

3. Only a remnant, however, shall be saved (10: 20- 
23). They will return to their land "after the manner 
of Egypt" (10:24-27); for the prophet here is not 
speaking of the people's conversion to Jehovah, as some 
think, but of their return from exile. Therefore let not 
Judah fear, for Jehovah is a God of righteousness, and 



84 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



eventually he will demonstrate also that he is greater 
than the gods of the Assyrians, who seem at the present 
to be supreme (10: 28-34). 

SIXTH DAY— Israel's Return from Exile (Chapters 11-12) 

1. Isaiah's vision of Israel's future reached beyond 
the exile, which was steadily taking place before his 
eyes, to Israel's return. A prediction to the same effect 
had already been made by Amos (9: 14, 15). The down- 
fall of Assyria is the signal for the commencement of a 
new era in Israel's history. 

2. Assyria has no future, her downfall is fatal ; Judah 
has a future, her calamities are only disciplinary. The 
house of Jesse has not wholly lost its recuperative power. 
An Ideal Prince will be raised up, in whose advent all 
nature will rejoice, even dumb animals (11 : 1-9). 

3. Him also the nations will seek (11:10). The 
prophet had predicted this essentially before (2: 2-4). 

4. In his days, righteousness and wisdom will be 
diffused; 'Tor the earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea" (11:9). 

5. A second great exodus will take place, for the 
Lord shall set his hand again "the second time" to re- 
cover the remnant of his people "from the four corners 
of the earth" (11:11, 12). In that day, "Ephraim shall 
not envy Judah and Judah shall not vex Ephraim" 
(11:13). 

6. Then the reunited nation, redeemed and occupying 
their rightful territory (11:14-16), shall sing a hymn 
of thanksgiving (12:1-6), as ancient Israel did after 
their exodus from Egypt (cf. Exod. 15) ; and they shall 
further proclaim the salvation of Jehovah to all the 
earth (12:5). 



POLITICAL ENTANGLEMENTS 85 



SEVENTH DAY— Summary of Isaiah's Political 
Discourses (734-732 B. C.) 

1. "Take heed and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy 
heart be faint;" "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall 
not be established" (7:4, 9). This was the summary 
of Isaiah's advice to Ahaz when threatened by the two 
kingdoms from the north — Ephraim and Syria. 

2. "For before the child (Immanuel) shall know to 
refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two 
kings thou abhorrest shall be forsaken" (7:16); and 
so it was. Within two years both Pekah and Rezin were 
dethroned and their richest spoils taken away to Assyria 
(732 B. C). 

3. "Say ye not, A conspiracy, concerning all whereof 
this people shall say, A conspiracy: neither fear ye their 
fear, nor be in dread thereof. Jehovah of hosts, him 
shall ye sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him 
be your dread" (8: 12, 13). 

4. "The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath 
lighted upon Israel" (9:8); judgment upon judgment, 
and calamity upon calamity, but Jehovah's warnings had 
notwithstanding all passed unheeded. "For all this his 
anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out 
still" (9: 12, 17, 21 ; 10: 4). 

5. "O my people, that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid 
of the Assyrians: though he smite thee with the rod, and 
lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. 
For yet a very little while, and the indignation against 
thee shall be accomplished, and mine anger shall be 
directed to his destruction" (10: 24, 25). Which means 
that if the Assyrian bondage is to be like the Egyptian, 
there will be a correspondingly glorious deliverance. 

6. Finally, a Messiah-Branch will grow out of the 



86 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



root of Jesse, bringing salvation and peace not only to 
the returned exiles, but also to the nations (11:10). 
Then shall the redeemed with joy draw water out of the 
wells of salvation, and proclaim their salvation to the 
end of the earth (12:3,5). 



One Calleth unto Me Out of Seir, Watchman, What of 
the Night? Watchman, What of the Night? The 
Watchman said, The Morning Cometh, and also the Night: 
if Ye will Inquire, Inquire Ye: Turn Ye, Come. 

Isa. 81:11, 12. 



STUDY EIGHT 



ISAIAH'S "BURDENS" CONCERNING FOREIGN 
NATIONS (CHAPTERS 13-23, 34-35) 

FIRST DAY— Concerning Babylon (Chapters 13:1—14: 
23; 21:1-10) 

1. Isaiah's horizon was world-wide. He was a close 
observer of national movements, and passed in review 
the foreign nations whose destinies affected Judah, as 
did Amos (chapters 1-2), Jeremiah (chapters 47-51), 
and Ezekiel (chapters 25-32). 

2. First among his foreign prophecies stands the 
oracle concerning Babylon (13: 1 — 14: 23), in which he 
predicts the utter destruction of the city (13: 2-22) and 
sings a dirge or taunt-song over her fallen king (14: 4- 
23). The king alluded to is almost beyond doubt an 
Assyrian not a Babylonian monarch of the eighth century 
(so Winckler, Cheyne, Cobb and others) ; the brief 
prophecy immediately following in 14:24-27 concerning 
"Assyria" confirms this interpretation. Moreover it was 
subsequent to this that Sennacherib made Nineveh the 
capital and removed the seat of his empire thither. 

3. The other brief oracle concerning Babylon (21:1- 
10) describes the city's fall as imminent. Both oracles 
stand or fall together as genuine prophecies of Isaiah. 
Both seem to have been written in Jerusalem (13:2; 
21:9-10). It cannot be said that either is absolutely 
unrelated in thought and language to Isaiah's age 
(14: 13; 21:2); each foretells the doom to fall on Baby- 
lon (13: 19; 21:9), at the hands of the Medes (13: 17; 
21:2); and each describes the Israelites as already in 
exile — but not necessarily all Israel. The best historical 



90 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



setting for 13:1 — 14:23, therefore, seems to be the 
period between 732-722 B. C. ; and for 21:1-10, 709 
B. C. A perfectly satisfactory historical background, 
however, should not be expected for an oracle dealing 
with "the day of Jehovah" (13: 6, 9). 

4. It is enough that the two great lessons of the 
redemption and comfort of Israel are taught by these 
oracles (14:1-2; 21:9-10), and that the prophet an- 
nounces Babylon's impending doom with feelings of 
sincere emotion (21:3). 

SECOND DAY— Concerning Moab (Chapters 15-16) 

1. This ancient oracle against Moab, whose dirge-like 
meter resembles that of chapters 13-14, is composed of 
two separate prophecies belonging to two different 
periods in Isaiah's ministry (16: 13). 

2. Chapters 15:1 — 16:12 describe Moab's woeful 
condition in 734 B. C, just after Tiglath-pileser, king 
of Assyria, had overrun Galilee and the region east of 
the Jordan, probably threatening Moab (2 Kings 15: 29). 
Chapter 16: 13-14 is a brief epilogue to the former 
prophecy, predicting the actual capture of Moab "within 
three years" (711 B. C). 

3. The principal points of interest in the oracle are: 

(1) The prophet's tender sympathy for Moab in her 
affliction (15: 5; 16:11). Isaiah mingles his own tears 
with those of the Moabites. "There is no prophecy in 
the book of Isaiah in which the heart of the prophet is 
so painfully moved by what his spirit beholds and his 
mouth must prophesy." (Delitzsch.) 

(2) Moab's pathetic appeal for shelter from her foes; 
particularly the ground on which she urges it, namely, 
the Messianic hope that the Davidic dynasty shall always 



CONCERNING FOREIGN NATIONS 91 



stand and be able to repulse its foes (16: 5). The pas- 
sage is an echo of 9: 5-7. 

(3) The promise that a remnant of Moab, though 
small, shall be saved (16: 14). Wearied of prayer to 
Chemosh in his high places, the prophet predicts that 
Moab will seek the living God (16: 12). 

THIRD DAY— Concerning Philistia and Damascus 
(Chapters 14:28-32; 17:1-14) 

1. The oracle concerning Philistia (14:28-32) is 
dated, "in the year that king Ahaz died" (727 B. C). 
Tiglath-pileser III., king of Assyria, died in the same 
year. 

2. In the first half of the oracle (vs. 29-30), the 
Philistines are bidden not to rejoice over the death of 
the great Assyrian "serpent" (Tiglath-pileser III.), as 
he will be succeeded by an "adder" (Shalmaneser IV.), 
and he in turn by a "fiery flying serpent" (Sargon II.), 
each one more destructive than his predecessor. 

3. In the second half (vs. 31-32), Isaiah warns the 
Philistines of the Assyrians' approach, and of Jerusa- 
lem's unwillingness to form an alliance with them, be- 
cause faith in Jehovah renders Jerusalem inviolable; 
therefore, Philistia's messengers may as well return 
home, for everything human is going down. 

4. In the oracle concerning Damascus, which also 
includes North Israel in its scope (17: 1-14), Isaiah pre- 
dicts the fate of the two allies — Syria and Ephraim — 
in the Syro-Ephraimitic war (734 B. C), with a promise 
that only a scanty remnant will survive (17:6). 

5. The cause of Israel's sad desolation, the prophet 
boldly declares, is their forgetfulness of God (17: 10); 
on the other hand, their unnamed foes (the Assyrians, 



92 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



undoubtedly) will themselves be vanquished between 
evening and daybreak (17: 14). 

FOURTH DAY— Concerning Egypt and Ethiopia 
(Chapters 18-20) 

1. Three distinct prophecies are addressed to Egypt 
and Ethiopia. Both these lands in Isaiah's period were 
ruled over by a single king from Napata in Ethiopia. 

2. The first (chapter 18) describes Ethiopia as in 
great excitement, sending ambassadors hither and thither 
— possibly all the way to Jerusalem — ostensibly seeking 
aid in making preparations for war. Assyria had al- 
ready taken Damascus (732 B. C.) and Samaria (722 
B. C.) ; consequently, Egypt and Ethiopia were in great 
fear of invasion. Isaiah bids the ambassadors to return 
home and quietly watch Jehovah thwart Assyria's self- 
confident attempt to subjugate Judah; and he adds that 
when the Ethiopians have seen God's hand in the coming 
deliverance of Judah and Jerusalem (701 B. C.) they 
will bring a present to Jehovah to his abode in Mount 
Zion (cf. 2 Chron. 32 : 23 ; Ps. 68 : 31 ; Isa. 45 : 14). 

3. The second oracle (chapter 19) contains both a 
threat (vs. 1-17) and a promise (vs. 18-25), and is one 
of Isaiah's most remarkable foreign prophecies (720 
B. C). Egypt is smitten and thereby led to abandon 
her idols for the worship of Jehovah (vs. 19-22). More 
remarkable still, it is prophesied that "in that day" 
Egypt and Assyria will join with Judah in a triple 
alliance of common worship to Jehovah and of blessing 
to others (vs. 23-25). The prophecy is a marvelous 
"missionary sermon/' worthy of a place alongside Paul's 
sermon on Mars' Hill. 

4. The third prophecy (chapter 20) is a brief sym- 



CONCERNING FOREIGN NATIONS 93 



bolic prediction of Assyria's victory over Egypt and 
Ethiopia in 711 B, C. By donning a captive's garb for 
three years, Isaiah attempts to teach the citizens of Jeru- 
salem that the siege of Ashdod (v. 1) was but a means 
to an end in Sargon's plan of campaign, and that it was 
sheer folly for the Egyptian party in Jerusalem, who 
were ever urging reliance upon Egypt, to look in that 
direction for help. In this graphic manner Isaiah sym- 
bolized the shameful fate which later befell the Egyptians 
at the hands of Sargon (cf. Mic. 1:8). 

FIFTH DAY— Concerning Edom and Arabia 
(Chapters 21:11-17; 34-35; 63:1-6) 

1. Of the three brief oracles concerning Edom in the 
book of Isaiah, that in 21 : 11-12 is "the only gentle utter- 
ance in the Old Testament upon Israel's hereditary foe." 
In it the prophet, in vision, beholds Edom in great anxiety 
sending messengers to inquire how far gone is their night 
of darkness and distress. The prophet's answer is dis- 
appointing, though its tone is sympathetic. The outlook 
is chequered. Dawn struggles with darkness. But if 
the messengers will come again, there may be additional 
tidings later (711 B. C). 

2. A second prophecy against "all the nations," but 
against Edom in particular, is the fierce cry for justice 
in chapter 34 (701 B. C). Its tone is the tone of judg- 
ment. Edom is guilty of high crimes against Zion 
(34: 8), therefore she is doomed to destruction. On the 
other hand, Israel's scattered ones shall return from 
exile and "obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and 
sighing shall flee away" (chapter 35). 

3. Shortly after this, Isaiah lifts his eye again and 
beholds a solitary majestic warrior coming from the 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



direction of Edorn, in clothing besprinkled with blood, 
and learns on inquiry that a terrible judgment of the 
nations has taken place on the soil of Edom (63: 1-6). 
The prophecy is a drama of divine vengeance on those 
who rejoiced in Judah's devastation and Jerusalem's 
humiliation in 701 B. C. This picture of Jehovah 
graphically prefigures the agony and passion of the 
Saviour who also "trod the winepress alone." 

4. The brief oracle concerning Arabia in 21: 13-17 
is a sympathetic appeal to the Temanites to give bread 
and water to the caravans of Dedan, who have been 
driven by war from their usual route of travel. For, 
says the prophet, "within a year" their fate will have 
been sealed and only a small remnant will survive (711 
B. C). 

SIXTH DAY— Concerning the Foreign Temper within 
the Theocracy (Chapter 22) 

1. Isaiah pauses, as it were, in his series of warnings 
to foreign nations to rebuke the foreign temper of the 
frivolous inhabitants of Jerusalem, and in particular 
Shebna, a high official in the government (chapter 22). 
The minatory tone of the oracle points to the year 711 
B. C, when Sargon invaded Judah, rather than to a 
temporary raising of the blockade of Jerusalem by Sen- 
nacherib in 701 B. C. 

2. In verses 1-14 the prophet draws a picture of the 
reckless and God-ignoring citizens of the capital, who 
venture to indulge themselves in hilarious eating and 
drinking, when the enemy at that very moment is stand- 
ing before the gates of the city. Very differently the 
impending catastrophe affects Isaiah, who weeps bitterly 
and refuses to be comforted because of the destruction 



COXCERXIXG FOREIGX XATIOXS 95 



of his people. With prophetic courage he declares that 
such godless impenitence and spiritual insensibility are 
sins beyond the possibility of forgiveness (v. 14). 

3. In verses 15-32 Isaiah directs a personal message 
— the only philippic in his book — to Shebna, the comp- 
troller of the palace, in which he predicts his deposition 
from office and degradation to a lower and less honorable 
position in the royal service. 

4. Shebna seems to have been an ostentatious for- 
eigner, perhaps a Syrian by birth, quite possibly one of 
the Egyptian party, whose policy was antagonistic to 
that of Isaiah and the king. On the other hand, Elia- 
kim, who was appointed in his place, probably repre- 
sented the true policy of the state; yet he also seems 
eventually to have forfeited his position of trust through 
nepotism — showing unwarrantable favors to his rela- 
tives. Isaiah's prediction of Shebna's fall was evidently 
fulfilled (36: 3; 37: 2). 

SEVENTH DAY— Concerning Tyre (Chapter 23) 
Summary 

1. In this last of Isaiah's foreign oracles (chapter 
23), the prophet predicts that Tyre shall be laid waste 
(v. 1), her commercial glory humbled (v. 9), her colonies 
become independent of her (v. 10), and she herself for- 
gotten for "seventy years" (v. 15) ; but, "after the end 
of seventy years/' her trade will revive, her business 
prosperity will return, and she will dedicate her gains 
in merchandise as holy to Jehovah (v. 18). The best 
date for this oracle is shortly before 722 B. C. 

2. In summing up the lessons of permanent value 
taught by these foreign oracles, emphasis should be laid 
on the following points : 



96 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



(1) That Babylon falls because of arrogancy and 
pride, whereas Israel is redeemed through Jehovah's 
gracious compassion (13: 11; 14: 1-2). 

(2) That Moab bases her appeal to Zion for shelter 
on the permanent character of the Davidic dynasty, as 
expressed in the Messianic hope current in Israel, namely, 
that "a throne shall be established in loving kindness" 
(16:4-5). 

(3) That the Philistines are not allowed to ally them- 
selves with Judah against Assyria, because Jerusalem is 
already inviolable through faith in Jehovah (14:32), 
and that the allied forces of Damascus and Israel had 
failed in the Syro-Ephraimitic war because they forsook 
the God of their salvation for idols (17: 10). 

(4) That Ethiopia is converted to Jehovah through 
seeing God's hand in history (18: 7)* and that Egypt is 
won to Jehovah's worship through divine discipline 
(19:22). 

(5) That Edom's fickle cry for light in the night 
(21: 11-12) is not deep or sincere enough to secure her 
from rejoicing over Judah's calamities, and therefore 
not sufficient to avert her deserved doom (34: 10). 

(6) That careless, godless abandon on the part of 
people in imminent peril of siege is an unpardonable sin 
and foreign to the spirit of the theocracy (22: 14) ; and 
that a man's pride, even of one who is a high officer of 
state, "shall bring him low" (22: 16, 19). 

(7) And lastly, that the profits derived from mer- 
chandise are no better morally than the hire of a harlot 
unless consecrated to the service of Jehovah (23:18). 
In short, that the heathen, as well as Israel, are respon- 
sible to God, and may share if they wish in his mercy 
and grace. 



And in This Mountain will Jehovah of Hosts Make unto 
all Peoples a Feast of Fat Things, a Feast of Wines on the 
Lees, of Fat Things Full of Marrow, of Wines on the Lees 
well Refined. 

Isa. 25: 6. 

He Hath Swallowed up Death for ever; and the Lord 
Jehovah will Wipe away Tears from off all Faces; and 
the Reproach of His People will He Take away from off 
all the Earth; for Jehovah Hath Spoken It. 

Isa. 25 : 8. 

Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is 
Stayed on Thee; because He Trusteth in Thee. 

Isa. 26:3. 

Thy Dead Shall Live; My Dead Bodies Shall Arise. 
Awake and Sing, Ye That Dwell in the Dust; for Thy 
Dew is as the Dew of Herbs, and the Earth Shall Cast 
Forth the Dead. 

Isa. 26:19. 



STUDY NINE 



SPIRITUAL MESSAGES OF SALVATION 
(CHAPTERS 24-27) 

FIRST DAY— Prophecy or Apocalypse? 

1. It is difficult to distinguish between prophecy and 
apocalypse. Prophecy, however, usually foretells a 
definite future which has its foundations in the present; 
apocalypse directs the mind more abstractly to the future 
in contrast with the present. 

2. Strictly speaking chapters 24-27 are prophecy, 
not apocalypse. No one ascends into heaven or talks 
with an angel, as in Dan. 7 and Rev. 4. They can, 
therefore, be considered apocalypse only in the sense 
that certain things are predicted as sure to come to pass. 

3. Isaiah was fond of this kind of prophecy. He 
frequently lifts his reader out of the sphere of mere 
history to paint pictures of the far-off distant future 
(2: 2-4; 4: 2-6; 11 : 6-16; 30: 27-33). In chapters 24-27 
we are especially impressed by the scope of his imagina- 
tion. 

4. These prophecies stand closely related to chapters 
13-23. They express the same tender emotion as that 
already observed in 21:3, 10; 15:5; 16:11, and sum 
up as in one grand finale the prophet's oracles to Israel's 
neighbors. For religious importance they stand second 
to none in the book of Isaiah, teaching the necessity of 
divine discipline and the glorious redemption awaiting 
the faithful in Israel. 

5. They are a spiritual commentary on the great 



100 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



Assyrian crisis of the eighth century, and seem to have 
sprung from the period prior to the fall of Samaria 
(722 B. C), or possibly just before the invasion of 
Sennacherib in 701 B. C. They are messages intended 
not for declamation but for meditation, and were probably 
addressed more particularly to the prophet's inner circle 
of "disciples" (8:16). 

SECOND DAY— Waves of Approaching Judgment 
(Chapter 24) 

1. A general judgment is on the way (v. 1), which 
will level all classes of society (v. 2), "because they have 
transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the 
everlasting covenant" (v. 5). Even "the earth" (in 
particular Judah) becomes polluted by Israel's sins and 
shares their guilt. Nature is frequently described in 
the Old Testament as sympathetic. "Man not only gov- 
erns nature, he infects her." (G. A. Smith.) 

2. Few mortals remain (v. 6), the merry-hearted 
sigh (v. 7) j the harp is silent (v. 8), Judah's cities (the 
word "city" in verses 10, 12 is collective) are broken 
down, and mirth has vanished (v. 11); only a sorry rem- 
nant is left of all the nations east and west to glorify 
the majesty of Jehovah (vs. 13-15). 

3. The prophet fancies he hears songs of deliver- 
ance, but alas! they are premature; more judgment must 
follow (v. 16). Universal catastrophe is about to burst 
in on every side like a terrible flood (v. 18). Neither 
the greatest of earth's kings nor even the guardian 
princes of heaven will escape (v. 21). Indeed, the sun 
and moon will lose their brightness, in token that God 
is angry with the world; for Jehovah will reign as sov- 
ereign over Zion in glory (v. 23). 



MESSAGES OF SALVATION 101 



4. Thus beyond the coming waves of judgment there 
lies a glorious salvation; Zion's enemies will be punished, 
while Zion herself shall emerge triumphant. 

THIRD DAY— Songs of the Redeemed (Chapter 25) 

1. In chapter 25 the prophet transports himself to the 
period after the Assyrian catastrophe and, identifying 
himself with the redeemed, puts into their mouths songs 
of praise and thanksgiving for their deliverance. His 
aim is not political but religious. 

2. Verses 1-5 are a hymn of thanksgiving to Jehovah 
for deliverance from the Assyrians, and also a confession 
of faith on the part of heathen cities ("city" is here 
again collective as in 24: 10, 12), whose surviving rem- 
nants now recognize the wonderful might of Jehovah. 

5. Verses 6-8 describe Jehovah's bountiful banquet 
on Mount Zion to all nations, who, in keeping with 2 : 2-4, 
come up to Jerusalem to celebrate "a feast of fat things," 
rich and marrowy. While the people are present at the 
banquet, Jehovah graciously removes their spiritual 
blindness so that they behold him as the true dispenser 
of life and grace. He also abolishes violent death, that 
is to say, war (cf. 2:4), and its sad accompaniment, 
"tears"; so that "the earth" (Judah in particular) is no 
longer the battlefield of the nations, but the blessed 
abode of the redeemed, living in peace and happiness. 

4. Verses 9-12 unfold in hymn-like language how in 
that day Jehovah's people will rejoice that in the midst 
of desolating calamities which are safely past, they 
waited patiently for Jehovah's salvation and, in conse- 
quence, now enjoy peace and rest; whereas Moab and 
all other enemies of Israel are described as suffering 
untold anguish and desolation. 



102 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



5. The chapter is "an enhanced echo of the song on 
the seashore in Exodus 15" (Orelli.) 

FOURTH DAY— Life from the Dead (Chapter 26:1-19) 

1. In chapter 26: 1-19 Judah sings a song over Jeru- 
salem^ the impregnable city of God. The prophet, tak- 
ing again his stand with the redeemed remnant of the 
nation, vividly portrays their thankful trust in Jehovah, 
who has been unto them a veritable "Rock of ages" (v. 4). 

2. Jerusalem was impregnable because surrounded 
by the walls of Jehovah's salvation (v. 1); yet she is 
ever accessible to all who keep faith (v. 2), and the 
secure abode of all those whose dispositions are firmly 
stayed on Jehovah (v. 3). Other cities ("city" in verse 
5 is without the article and therefore collective) have 
been brought low, but in Jerusalem, the impregnable 
city of Jehovah, there is safety. 

3. Looking back over their past experiences the 
redeemed community at length recognize that by pa- 
tiently waiting on God to come to judgment they were 
taught righteousness (vs. 8, 9) ; the wicked, on the con- 
trary, who are incapable of learning righteousness, will 
be judged (v. 10). 

4. At this point the prophet pauses to reflect on the 
destruction of the nation's adversaries (v. 11), and on 
the people's peaceful condition as the result of Jehovah's 
deliverance of them from foreign oppressors who are 
now dead and forgotten (vs. 12-14). He also recalls 
how Jehovah increased the nation (v. 15), how they 
prayed to him in their distress (v. 16), and how they 
utterly failed in attempting to save themselves (vs. 17- 
18). ' 

5. With hope, therefore, he exclaims, Let Jehovah's 



MESSAGES OF SALVATION 103 



dead ones live! Let Israel's dead bodies arise! Jeho- 
vah will bring life from the dead! (v. 19.) This is the 
first clear statement of the resurrection in the Old Testa- 
ment. But it is national and restricted to Israel even 
here (cf. v. 14), and is merely Isaiah's method of ex- 
pressing a hope of the return of Israel's faithful ones 
from captivity (cf. Hos. 6:2; Ezek. 37:1-14; Dan. 
12: 2). 

FIFTH DAY— Israel's Chastisements Salutary 
(Chapters 26:20—27:13) 

1. In chapter 26: 20, 21 the prophet exhorts his own 
people, his disciples, to continue a little longer in the 
solitude of prayer, till God's wrath is overpast. They 
are to be saved, but the land as a whole is incapable of 
salvation. Yet in that day (27: 1) the agents of de- 
struction shall themselves be destroyed: viz., "the swift 
serpent," Assyria; "the crooked serpent," Babylonia; 
and the sea "monster," Egypt. 

2. The true vineyard of Jehovah, which these three 
great heathen world-powers have like ravenous beasts 
laid waste, will henceforth be safely guarded against the 
briars and thorns of foreign invasion (27:2-4; cf. 5: 1- 
7) ; and it will flourish so gloriously that the whole earth 
shall be filled with its fruit (27: 6; cf. 4:2). The lan- 
guage here is that of prophecy, not apocalypse (cf. 
37:31). 

3. Notwithstanding all, Jehovah's chastisements of 
Israel were light compared with the judgments of Jeho- 
vah upon other nations (27:7, 8). Theirs were puni- 
tive; Israel's, remedial. Israel he sifted; the nations 
he destroyed. In their case his object was annihilation: 
in Israel's, salvation. Forgiveness, therefore, is ever 



104 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



possible, if "Jacob" will only renounce his sins and for- 
sake his idolatry (27:9). 

4. But Judah, like Ephraim in Hosea's time (Hos. 
4: 17), is wedded to her idols, hence her fortified cities 
("city" in 27:10 is collective, as in 24:10-12; 25:2; 
26:5) will become solitary and forsaken (27:10-11). 
When, however, Israel repents, Jehovah will spare no 
pains to gather "one by one" the remnant of his people 
from Assyria and Egypt (cf. 11 : 11) ; and together they 
shall once more worship Jehovah in the holy mountain 
at Jerusalem (27:12-13). 

SIXTH DAY— The Historical Standpoint of the Author 

1. The prophet's fundamental standpoint in chapters 
24-27 is the same as that of the author of 2:2-4 and 
chapters 13-23, namely, that of the eighth century B. C. 
As to his style and figures also, "everything is Isaianic," 
and "has an Isaianic ring." (Delitzsch.) 

2. Yet the prophet not infrequently throws himself 
forward into the remote future, oscillating backwards 
and forwards between his own times and those of Israel's 
restoration. It is especially noteworthy how he sustains 
himself in a long and continued transportation of him- 
self to the period of Israel's redemption. He even 
studies to identify himself with the new Israel which will 
emerge out of the present chaos of political events. His 
visions of Israel's redemption carry him in ecstacy far 
away into the remote future, to a time when the nation's 
sufferings are all over; so that when he writes down 
what he saw in vision he describes it as a discipline that 
is past. 

3. For example, in 25: 1-8 the prophet, transported 
to the end of time, celebrates what he saw in song, and 



MESSAGES OF SALVATION 105 



describes how the fall of the world-empire is followed 
by the conversion of the heathen. In 26: 8-9 he looks 
back into the past from the standpoint of the redeemed 
in the last days, and tells how Israel longingly waited 
for the manifestation of God's righteousness which has 
now taken place. While in 27:7-9, he places himself 
in the midst of the nation's sufferings, in full view of 
their glorious future, and portrays how Jehovah's deal- 
ings with Israel have not been the punishment of wrath, 
but the discipline of love. 

4. This kind of apocalypse, indeed, was to be ex- 
pected from the very beginning of this group of proph- 
ecies, which are introduced with the word, "Behold !" 
Such a manner of introduction is peculiar to Isaiah, and 
of itself leads us to expect a message which is unique. 

SEVENTH DAY— -The Value of Chapters 24-27 to 
Isaiah's Age 

1. The practical religious value of these prophecies 
to Isaiah's own age would be very great. They would 
bring untold spiritual comfort to the theocracy. 

2. In a period of war and repeated foreign invasion 
(734-722 B. C), when but few men were left in the 
land (24:6, IS; 26:18) and Judah's cities were laid 
waste and desolate (24:10, 12; 25:2; 26:5; 27:10) 
and music and gladness were wanting (24: 8), when the 
nation still clung to their idols (27: 9) and the Assyrians' 
work of destruction was still incomplete, other calamities 
being sure to follow (24:16); it would certainly be 
comforting to know that forgiveness was still possible 
(27:9), that Jehovah was still the keeper of his vine- 
yard (27: 3-4), that his judgments were to last but for 
a little moment (26:20), and that though his people 



106 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



should be scattered, he would soon carefully gather them 
"one by one" (27: 12-13), and that in company with 
other nations they would feast together on Mount Zion 
as Jehovah's guests (25:6, 7, 10). On the other hand, 
the prophet assures his hearers that their enemies, Moab 
(25: 10), Assyria, Babylon and Egypt (27: 1) shall be 
trodden down and destroyed and that Jerusalem shall 
henceforth become the center of life and religion to all 
nations (24:23; 25:6; 27:13). 

3. Such faith in Jehovah, such exhortations, and 
such songs and confessions of the redeemed, seen in 
vision, would be a source of rich spiritual comfort to the 
few suffering saints in Judah and Jerusalem, and a 
guiding star to the faithful disciples of the prophet's 
inner circle; and through them a ground of hope to the 
generations to come, upon whom similar judgments would 
inevitably descend. 

4. As a matter of fact, it is pretty generally recog- 
nized even by the most radical critics that these prophe- 
cies have at least an Isaianic basis. 



For It is Precept upon Precept, Precept upon Precept; 
Line upon Line, Line upon Line; Here a Little, There a 
Little. 

Isa. 58: 10. 

Therefore Thus Saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold I Lay in 
Zion for a Foundation a Stone, a Tried Stone, a Precious 
Corner Stone of sure Foundation: He that Believeth Shall 
not be in Haste. 

Isa. 28: 16. 

For the Bed is Shorter than that a Man can Stretch 
Himself on It; and the Covering Narrower than that He 
can Wrap Himself in It. 

Isa. 28:20, 

And a Man Shall be as a Hiding-place from the Wind, 
and a Covert from the Tempest, as Streams of Water in a 
Dry Place., as the Shade of a Great Rock in a "Weary Land. 

Isa. 32:2. 

Thine Eyes Shall See the King in His Beauty; They 
Shall Behold a Land That Reacheth Afar. 

Isa. 33:17. 

And the Inhabitant Shall not Say, I am Sick: the 
People That Dwell Therein Shall be Forgiven Their 
Iniquity. 

Isa. 33:24. 



STUDY TEN 



A SERIES OF SIX WOES (CHAPTERS 28-33) 

FIRST DAY— Woe to Drunken, Scoffing Politicians 
(Chapter 28) 

1. This is one of the great chapters of Isaiah's book. 
It is the first of a series of six, all of which refer to the 
invasion of Sennacherib in 701 B. C. The opening 
verses (1-6), however, seem to have been first spoken 
before the downfall of Samaria (722 B. C.) — a hint 
possibly that the whole series may have been written 
earlier than is usually supposed (704-701 B. C). 

2. After pointing in warning to the proud drunkards 
of Ephraim, whose crown (Samaria) is rapidly fading 
(vs. 1-6), the prophet turns to the scoffing politicians 
of Jerusalem, rebuking especially the bibulous priests 
who stumble in judgment, and the staggering prophets 
who err in vision (vs. 7-8). 

3. But they,, looking up with bleared eyes, only mock 
in burlesque mimicry his monotonous preaching. (Each 
word in verse 10 is a monosyllable in Hebrew.) Where- 
upon, Isaiah hurls back the sarcastic but serious retort 
that Jehovah will one day speak to them in Assyrian 
monosyllables (vs. 11-13). 

4. Then, without openly denouncing their desire to 
make an alliance with Egypt, he assures them that to 
suppose that they had made a "covenant with death" is 
a delusion, that judgment is imminent, and that the only 
true element of permanency in Zion is the "sure founda- 
tion" stone of faith (v. 16). 

5. However, Jehovah's judgments upon them will 



110 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



not be arbitrary. The methods employed by peasants 
in agriculture are a parable of God's purpose in dis- 
ciplining. For example, the husbandman does not plow 
and harrow his fields the whole year round; he plows 
and harrows that he may also sow and reap. So God 
will not punish his people forever; a glorious future 
awaits the redeemed. The husbandman does not thresh 
all kinds of grain with equal severity; no more will God 
discipline his people beyond their deserts (vs. 23-29). 

SECOND DAY— Woe to Formalists in Religion 
(Chapter 29:1-14) 

1. Isaiah's second woe is pronounced upon Ariel, the 
altar-hearth of God, i.e., Jerusalem, the sacrificial center 
of Israel's worship. David had first inaugurated the 
true worship of Jehovah in Zion. But now Zion's wor- 
ship had become so formal and heartless Jehovah deter- 
mined with another full year to allow Jerusalem to be 
besieged and fall (vs. 1-4). 

2. Not completely, however, for suddenly her foes 
shall themselves be humiliated. Their prey will elude 
them like the phantasm of a dream, and they shall vanish. 
Shame and confusion will cover them (vs. 5-8). 

3. This is Jehovah's message to the masses. But 
his nominal worshipers, who are spiritually blind and 
therefore dull to comprehend the significance of such 
words^ stand and stare at the prophet as in a stupor. 
Even the cultured fail to grasp the inner meaning of 
the prophet's words ; and as for the unlearned, they gaze 
at him and his message as ignorant pagans stare at 
human handwriting (vs. 9-12). 

4. The cause of such spiritual stupidity the prophet 
declares to be their formality and hypocrisy in worship. 



SERIES OF SIX WOES 



111 



Religion has become wholly conventional and therefore 
insincere; it is learned by rote (v. 13; cf. 1: 10-15; Mic. 
6:6-8). They draw nigh to Jehovah with their lips, 
while their hearts are far from him. Therefore, says 
Isaiah, Jehovah is forced to do an extraordinary work 
among them, in order to bring them back to a true knowl- 
edge of himself (v. 14). 

THIRD DAY— Woe to Those Who Hide Their Plans 
from God (Chapter 29:15-24) 

1. Isaiah's third woe is pronounced against those 
who secretly hide their counsel from Jehovah in order 
to avoid Jehovah's rebuke; who work in the dark, fool- 
ishly fancying that Jehovah does not see them (v. 15). 

2. What their counsel is, or what they may be devis- 
ing in secret, the prophet does not yet disclose; but he 
doubtless alludes to their intrigues with the Egyptians 
and their purpose to break faith with the Assyrians, to 
whom they were bound by treaty to pay annual tribute. 

3. Isaiah bravely remonstrates with them for sup- 
posing that any policy will succeed which excludes the 
counsel and wisdom of the Holy One. They are but 
clay; he is the potter. Shall the creature attempt to 
dictate to the Creator? Can they by their cleverness 
correct his ways (v. 16; cf. 45: 9; 64: 8) ? 

4. At this point, though somewhat abruptly, Isaiah 
turns his face toward the Messianic future. In a very 
little while, he says, Lebanon, which is now overrun by 
Assyria's army, shall become a fruitful field, and the 
blind and deaf and spiritually weak shall rejoice in the 
Holy One of Israel; for the Assyrian tyrant shall be 
brought to nought, and Jerusalem's scoffing politicians 
shall be cut off (vs. 17-20). 



112 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



5. The end of Israel's history shall be like its begin- 
ning. As God ransomed Abraham from his heathen 
compatriots, so will Jehovah rescue Jacob-Israel from 
their idolatrous surroundings. Those capable of refor- 
mation will be reformed; those erring will be corrected; 
those given to murmuring will be admonished; while all 
will in that day submit docilely to the revealed teaching 
of God (vs. 22-24). 

FOURTH DAY— Woe to the Pro-Egyptian Party 
V( Chapter 30) 

1. Isaiah's fourth woe is directed against the rebel- 
lious politicians who stubbornly , and now openly, advo- 
cate making a league with Egypt. They have at length 
succeeded apparently in winning the king over to their 
side, and an embassy is already on its way to Egypt, 
bearing across the desert of the Exodus rich treasures 
with which to purchase the friendship of their former 
oppressors (vs. 1-5). 

2. Isaiah now condemns what he can no longer pre- 
vent. He warns them that their policy is untheocratic 
because they lack faith in Jehovah, and therefore doomed 
to failure; that they absurdly exaggerate Egypt's re- 
sources; that they are grossly ignorant of Egypt's true 
character in time of war and danger; that Egypt is a 
Rahab £t sit-still," i.e., a mythological sea monster men- 
acing in mien but laggard in action; and that when the 
crisis comes she will sit still, causing Israel only shame 
and confusion (vs. 6-7). 

3. But the advocates of the pro-Egyptian party stub- 
bornly refuse to give heed to Isaiah's admonition. Ac- 
cordingly Jehovah bids the prophet to take a tablet and 
to write before them in a book his unavailing protest 



SERIES OF SIX WOES 



113 



against this fatal step, that it may be a perpetual memo- 
rial to the generations to come of Judah's unwillingness 
to listen to Jehovah's instruction, forever and ever (vs. 
8-14). 

4. Therefore, urges the prophet, recall the embassy 
now on its way to Egypt, and trust quietly in Jehovah 
for deliverance in the impending crisis (vs. 15-17). 
Jehovah is waiting to be gracious. If Israel will only 
repent of their idolatry (vs. 18-26), copious blessings 
will follow and they "shall have a song as in the night" 
from the Rock of Israel (vs. 27-29). 

5. But with fire and tempest he will suddenly devour 
the Assyrians, and kindle as with brimstone their funeral 
pile (vs. 30-33). 

FIFTH DAY— Woe to Those Who Trust in Horses and 
Chariots (Chapters 31-32) 

1. Isaiah's fifth woe is a still more vehement denun- 
ciation of those who trust in Egypt's horses and chariots, 
and disregard the Holy One of Israel. Those who do 
this forget that the Egyptians are but men and their 
horses flesh, and that flesh cannot avail in a conflict with 
spirit (31: 1-3). 

2. Eor it is Jehovah who, by means of Assyria, has 
seized hold of Jerusalem and holds it like a lion in his 
grasp; and it is idle folly to suppose that a few Egyptian 
allies, called in to help shepherd Jerusalem, will be able 
to scare the All-powerful One from his prey (31:4). 
Note the Homeric ring of this verse ! 

3. Eventually Jehovah means to deliver Jerusalem, 
if the children of Israel will but turn from their idola- 
tries to him; and in that day, Assyria will be vanquished 
(31:5-9). 



114 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



4. A new era will dawn upon Judah. Society will 
be regenerated. King and nobles will rule in righteous- 
ness^ and the poor will find justice. The renovation of 
society will begin at the top. Those who were once spir- 
itually blind and deaf shall at length understand; those 
who thought aforetime only superficially, will think 
deeply; and those who stammered when speaking on 
religion, will henceforth speak clearly and forcibly. 
Conscience also will be sharpened, and moral distinctions 
will no longer be confused (32: 1-8). "The aristocracy 
of birth and wealth will be replaced by an aristocracy 
of character." (Delitzsch.) 

5. The careless and indifferent women, too, in that 
day will no longer menace the social welfare of the state. 
Within a year their palaces and pleasant gardens will 
have been given over to wild asses and flocks for pasture. 
"Next year's harvests will never come" (32:9-14; cf. 
3: 16—4: 1). 

6. With the outpouring of Jehovah's spirit an ideal 
commonwealth will emerge, in which social righteousness, 
peace, plenty and security will abound (32: 15-20). 

SIXTH DAY— Woe to the Assyrian Destroyer 
(Chapter 33) 

1. Isaiah's last woe is directed against the treacherous 
spoiler himself, who has already laid waste the cities of 
Judah, and is now beginning to lay siege to Jerusalem 
(701 B. C). 

2. The precise historical situation of this chapter is 
defined in verses 7-12, from which it appears that the 
ambassadors, who were sent by Hezekiah with costly 
tribute to Sennacherib at Lachish, have returned home 
with the melancholy news that the treacherous Assyrian 



SERIES OF SIX WOES 



115 



has accepted their tribute but refused to abandon the 
siege (cf. 2 Kings 18: 14-16). For Isaiah, such treach- 
ery fills the measure of Assyria's iniquity to the full, and 
the hour of Judah's deliverance is come (v. 10). 

3. The prophet prays (v. 2) ; and while he prays, 
behold ! the mighty hosts of the Assyrians are routed, 
and the long-besieged but now triumphant inhabitants 
of Jerusalem rush out like locusts upon the spoil which 
the vanishing adversary has been forced to leave behind 
(vs. 3-4). The destroyer's plan to reduce Jerusalem 
has come to naught. 

4. The whole earth beholds the spectacle of Assyria's 
defeat and is filled with awe and amazement at the 
mighty work of Jehovah. Even the sinners within Jeru- 
salem stand aghast at Jehovah's omnipotence, and sol- 
emnly inquire: Who among us dare dwell in a city with 
such a God? Jehovah's wrath is like a divine fire, and 
his furnace is in Zion (v. 14 ; cf. 31 : 9). 

5. Only the righteous may henceforth dwell in Jeru- 
salem. Their eyes shall behold the Messiah-King in his 
beauty, reigning no longer like Hezekiah over a limited 
and restricted territory, but over a land unbounded, 
whose inhabitants enjoy Jehovah's peace and protection, 
and are free from all sickness, and therefore from all 
sin (vs. 17-24). With this beautiful picture of the 
Messianic future, the prophet's woes find an appropriate 
conclusion. 

SEVENTH DAY— Summary: No Woe without a Promise 

1. The most striking feature of these prophecies is 
the constant alternation of threat and promise. Isaiah 
never pronounced a woe without adding a corresponding 
promise: thus, Woe to those who vainly scoff at Jeho- 



116 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



van's warnings (28:7-22); yet, God will not ruthlessly 
destroy even scoffers; he will only punish them accord- 
ing to their deserts (28: 23-29). 

2. Woe to those who in their spiritual blindness and 
hypocrisy trust in form and ritual (29:9-13); yet in 
order to rouse them from their spiritual stupor, God will 
do an extraordinary work and destroy their arch-enemy 
without assistance (29: 5-8, 14). 

3. Woe to those who exclude God from their plans 
and purposes, and practically dictate to their Creator 
what the issues of life must be (29: 15-16) ; yet even to 
such God will continue to reveal himself in wisdom and 
instruction (29: 17-24). 

4. Woe to those who make friends with God's ene- 
mies, rejecting the counsel of his Spirit; who silence the 
voice of prophecy and demand that the seers preach 
"smooth things" (30: 10) ; yet even to them a voice will 
be heard from behind whispering, "This is the way, walk 
ye in it" (30: 21). 

5. Woe to those who rely for help on flesh and blood 
rather than upon the spirit of the living God (31 : 1, 3) ; 
yet such may be saved by repentance (31 : 6), and be 
allowed to dwell in peace in a land rejuvenated by God's 
presence (31: 15-20). 

6. Finally, woe to the treacherous enemies of the 
kingdom of God, who would violently destroy the last 
vestige of Jehovah's possessions ; they shall be destroyed, 
and that without mercy (33: 1-12); on the other hand 
Israel will be gloriously delivered, and their iniquities 
forgiven (33:22-24), 



Thus Saith Jehovah, Set Thy House in Order; for Thou 
Shalt Die, and not Live. 

Isa. 38:1. 

What Shall I Say? He Hath Both Spoken unto Me, and 
Himself Hath Done It: I Shall go Softly all My Years 
because of the Bitterness of My Soul. O Lord, by These 
Things Men Live; and Wholly Therein is the Life of My 
Spirit: Wherefore Recover Thou Me, and Make Me to Live. 

Isa. 38:15, 16. 



STUDY ELEVEN 



HISTORY, PROPHECY AND SONG 
(CHAPTERS 36-39) 

FIRST DAY— The Fourteenth Year of King Hezekiah 
(Chapter 36: 1) 

1. In chapters 36-39 three important historical 
events are narrated, in which Isaiah was a prominent 
factor: (1) the double attempt of Sennacherib to 
obtain possession of Jerusalem (chapters 36-37) ; (2) 
Hezekiah's sickness and recovery (chapter 38) ; (3) 
the embassy of Merodach-Baladan (chapter 39). With 
certain omissions and insertions these chapters are dupli- 
cated verbatim in 2 Kings 18: 13 — 20: 19. 

2. Chronologically chapters 38-39 precede chapters 
36-37. This is probably due to the fact that chapters 
36-37, which describe the siege of Jerusalem by Sennach- 
erib in 701 B. C.j explain and appropriately conclude 
chapters 1-35; whereas, chapters 38-39, which record 
Hezekiah's sickness (714 B. C.) and Merodach-Baladan's 
embassy of congratulation upon his recovery (712 B. C), 
fittingly introduce chapters 40-66. 

3. The whole section (chapters 36-39) is introduced 
with the chronological note, "Now it came to pass in the 
fourteenth year of king Hezekiah/' Various attempts 
have been made to solve the mystery of this date; for if 
the author is alluding to the siege of 701 B. C, difficulty 
arises, because that event occurred not in Hezekiah's 
fourteenth but twenty-sixth year, according to the Bibli- 
cal chronology; or if, with George Adam Smith and 
others, we date Hezekiah's accession to the throne of 
Judah as "most probably" in 720 B. C, then the siege 



120 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



of 701 B. C. occurred, as is evident, in Hezekiah's nine- 
teenth year. It is barely possible that "the fourteenth 
year of king Hezekiah" was the fourteenth of the fifteen 
years which were added to his life, but more probably it 
alludes to the fourteenth of his reign. 

4. On the whole it is better to take the phrase as a 
general chronological caption for the entire section, with 
special reference to chapter 38, which tells of Hezekiah's 
sickness, which actually fell in his fourteenth year 
(714 B. C), and which, coupled with Sargon's expected 
presence at Ashdod, was the great personal crisis of 
the king's life. In any case the author of these chapters 
was not a mere historian but a prophet. 

SECOND DAY— The Events of 701 B. C. (Chapters 36-37) 

1. Sennacherib made two attempts in 701 B. C. to 
reduce Jerusalem: one from Lachish with an army 
(36: 2 — 37: 8), and another from Libnah with a threat 
conveyed by messengers (37:9-38). The brief section 
contained in 2 Kings 18: 14-16 is omitted from between 
verses 1 and 2 of Isaiah 36, because it was not the 
prophet's aim at this time to recount the nation's humilia- 
tion. 

2. Sennacherib's two attempts to take Jerusalem 
followed each other in rapid succession. First (36: 2 — 
37 : 8) he sent his commander-in-chief, the Rabshakeh, 
from Lachish with a vast army (36: 2). After arriving 
at Jerusalem, the Rabshakeh, in an oral address in 
Hebrew before the walls of the city, insolently defied 
Hezekiah and Hezekiah's God (36:13-20). The king 
was panic-stricken. He rent his clothes, repaired to the 
temple, and sent a request to Isaiah to pray for the rem- 
nant of his people (37: 1-4) ; whereupon Isaiah returned 



HISTORY, PROPHECY, SONG 121 



answer that the king should not be afraid, for Sennach- 
erib would hear tidings and return to his own land 
(36:5-7). 

3. Sennacherib's second attempt (37:9-38) was 
baffled by the rumored approach of Tirhakah, king of 
Ethiopia. Not being able to spare a detachment of the 
regular army he sends messengers to Hezekiah with an 
insulting letter, in which he threatens Jerusalem with 
utter destruction (37:9-13). Hezekiah receives the 
letter and again repairs to the temple, spreads the letter 
before Jehovah that He may more clearly behold its 
arrogant character, and prays that Jehovah may vindicate 
himself as the only true and living God by saving the 
city (37 : 14-20) ; whereupon Isaiah sends him a message 
of comfort, predicting that Sennacherib will not return 
to renew the siege, nor shoot an arrow into the city, and 
that the city will be surely delivered (37: 21-35). 

4. It is then recorded (37: 36-37) how the angel of 
Jehovah went forth and smote, perhaps by means of a 
pestilence, as Herodotus suggests, 185,000 of Sennach- 
erib's army, and how the king himself returned to Nine- 
veh; to which an editor has appended the information 
that Sennacherib died a violent death at the hands of 
his two sons (37:38). This happened twenty years 
subsequent to the siege of Jerusalem (681 B. C.) ; during 
all these years Sennacherib apparently never made an- 
other expedition into Palestine. 

THIRD DAY— Isaiah's Last "Word" Concerning Assyria 
(Chapter 37:21-35) 

1. This last formal prophecy concerning Assyria is 
one of Isaiah's grandest predictions. It was delivered 
during the din and excitement of a real crisis (701 B. C), 
and before the historical issue was generally known. 



122 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



2. It is composed of three parts: (1) A taunt-song 
in elegiac rhythm, on the inevitable humiliation of Sen- 
nacherib (vs. 22-29) ; (2) a short poem in different 
rhythm, directed to Hezekiah, in order to encourage his 
faith (vs. 30-32) ; (3) a definite prediction, in less 
elevated style, of the sure deliverance of Jerusalem 
(vs. 33-35). 

3. The taunting tone of the first section (vs. 22-29) 
is accounted for by the insolent character of Sennach- 
erib's letter (37: 10-13), in which he scorns the God of 
Israel as impotent and powerless to protect Jerusalem. 
Isaiah, on the contrary, reminds Sennacherib that 
Assyria's successes in time past were not due to their 
own gods, but rather to the eternal purpose of Jehovah, 
who has been using Assyria as an elect instrument in the 
overthrow of nations (37: 26; cf. 22: 11; 10: 5-15). 

4. Then turning to King Hezekiah, in verses 30-32 
Isaiah gives him a "sign," by which he may verify the 
prophetic "word." For two years there will not be 
regular harvests, but in the third, the surviving remnant 
will sow and reap in peace. Thus would Isaiah give 
the king a tangible support to faith, and encourage him 
in rejecting Sennacherib's insolent demand to surrender. 

5. The prophecy concludes with a definite prediction 
of Jerusalem's deliverance (vs. 33-35), which was abso- 
lutely and literally fulfilled. "Never had a prophet pre- 
dicted more boldly, never was a prediction more bril- 
liantly fulfilled." 

The Destruction of Sennacherib 

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, 
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; 
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, 
When the blue waves roll lightly on deep Galilee. 



HISTORY, PROPHECY, SONG 123 



Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, 
That host with their banners at sunset were seen : 
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, 
That host on the morrow lay wither'd and strown. 

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd; 
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill, 
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still: 

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, 
But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride; 
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. 

And there lay the rider distorted and pale, 
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: 
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 
The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown. 

And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail, 
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; 
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 
Hath melted like snow at the glance of the Lord ! 

— Lord Byron. 

FOURTH DAY — Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery 
(Chapter 38) 

1. "In those days (i.e.,, his fourteenth year, 714 
B. C.) was Hezekiah sick unto death." The king was 
about thirty-eight years of age when Isaiah was divinely 
commanded to pronounce upon him the sentence of death: 
"Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die and not live" 
(v. 1). 

2. Hezekiah at that time had no son (39:7; cf. 2 
Kings 21: 1), and the dynasty of David, in which cen- 
tered so many Messianic hopes, was seriously threat- 
ened. The king accordingly turned his face to the wall 



124 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



and prayed and wept sore; whereupon Jehovah, seeing 
Hezekiah's tears, revoked his death sentence, and added 
to his life fifteen years (vs. 2-5). 

3. God also gave him a "sign" that what he promised 
would come to pass. As Hezekiah lay in his palace 
chamber he could look through the window and watch 
the sun's shadow descend on the staircase of Ahaz, by 
which the king was accustomed to go up into the house 
of the Lord (cf. 1 Kings 10: 5). The shadow naturally 
would serve the purpose of a chronometer for the dying 
monarch. That the shadow might be an indubitable 
sign to Hezekiah, God caused it to return backward "ten 
steps." So the sun returned "ten steps" on the dial, or 
steps, whereon it was gone down (vs. 6-8). 

4. Among the celebrated sun-dials of antiquity this 
staircase of Ahaz has become the most famous. That 
of Augustus on the field of Mars in Rome is another. 
There is a modern dial on the rear of the Sirdar's palace 
at Khartum in the Sudan, which bears the suggestive 
motto: "The bird of time has but a little way to fly, And 
lo ! the bird is on the wing." 

5. The prophet's prescription for the king's malady 
in verses 21-22, which in 2 Kings 20 stands after verse 6, 
comes in rather awkwardly after Hezekiah's psalm, but 
its position may be due to the editor's desire to bring 
verses 20 and 22 into close juxtaposition. 

FIFTH DAY— Hezekiah's Song of Thanksgiving 
(Chapter 38:9-20) 

1. This beautiful plaintive "Writing" of King Heze- 
kiah, in which he celebrates his recovery from some 
mortal sickness, expresses the sentiments and feelings 
of one who has himself personally been unexpectedly 



HISTORY, PROPHECY, SONG 125 



and miraculously delivered from the brink of death. It 
is omitted altogether by the author of the book of Kings 
(cf. 2 Kings 20). 

2. With hopeless melancholy the king, in the first 
half of the poem, depicts his deep despondency when 
confronting death and the darkness of Sheol (vs. 10-14) ; 
but with correspondingly boundless rapture he describes 
his joy at the thought of continued life in communion 
with Jehovah in the land of the living (vs. 15-20). 

3. A more minute outline of this royal psalm is as 
follows: (1) Verses 10-12 review the king's feelings 
as in the noontide of life (thirty-eight years old) he 
faced gloomy Sheol, whose pale inhabitants were sup- 
posed in Old Testament times to lose all interest in 
human affairs and to be completely cut off from all con- 
scious communion with God. (2) Verses 13-14 describe 
how in the midst of his distress he prayed, but God did 
not regard him; and how sometimes during his illness 
he felt so languid that he despaired of living out the 
day. (3) Verses 15-17 relate how Jehovah came to his 
rescue, and not only promised him life but actually caused 
him to live. Therefore, he asks, What can I render to 
God for his faithfulness ? I shall go softly, as in solemn 
procession, all my added years; for now I see that my 
affliction was God's chastisement, and that by such expe- 
riences and with the help of such promises, men really 
live. (4) In verses 18-20, he continues to rejoice in 
the prospect of continued communion with God in the 
land of the living; and vows that as a faithful choragus 
he will sing songs with which to celebrate Jehovah's 
praise in the temple all the remaining days of his life 
(cf. 2 Chron. 29: 30). 

4. While Hezekiah's view of the future world is 
gloomy, being without consciousness of God's presence, 



126 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



and consequently without moral or intellectual energy 
(v. 18) j yet the same view is entertained in several of 
the psalms (6 : 5 ; 55 : 4 ; 56 : IS ; 1 16 : 3), and is in perfect 
harmony with Hezekiah's early times. 

SIXTH DAY— The Embassy of Merodach-Baladan 
(Chapter 39) 

1. Hezekiah was sick in 714 B. C. Two years later 
Merodach-Baladan, the veteran arch-enemy of Assyria, 
having heard of his wonderful recovery, sent letters and 
a present to congratulate him (v. 1). 

2. Doubtless also political motives prompted the re- 
calcitrant Babylonian. Sargon complains in one of his 
inscriptions that Merodach-Baladan was ever sending 
ambassadors to the disaffected subjects of the empire, 
inciting them to join with him in getting rid of the 
Assyrian yoke. The chronicler mentions scientific 
curiosity as another motive for the embassy (2 Chron. 
32: 31). 

3. In any case Hezekiah was greatly flattered by the 
visit of Merodach-Baladan's envoys; and, in a moment 
of weakness,, showed them all his royal treasures (v. 2). 
This was an inexcusable blunder, as the sight of his 
many precious possessions would only excite their cupid- 
ity to possess Jerusalem. 

4. Isaiah at once perceived the issues of the trans- 
action and sought an interview with Hezekiah. In tones 
of prophetic authority he catechized the king as to the 
ambassadors, their home, what they had said, and what 
they had seen, and boldly rebuked him for his vanity of 
heart and lack of faith in Jehovah in thus receiving 
them. And not only did he solemnly condemn the king's 
conduct, but he announced with more than ordinary in- 



HISTORY, PROPHECY, SONG 127 



sight that the days were coming when all the accumulated 
resources of Jerusalem should be carried away to Baby- 
lon (vs. 3-6; cf. Mic. 4: 10). 

5. Hezekiah, conscience-smitten, in pious resignation 
meekly submitted to the prophet's rebuke; evidently, 
however, regarding the postponement of the calamity 
as a mitigation of its severity (vs. 7-8). 

6. This final prediction of judgment is the most mar- 
velous of all Isaiah's minatory utterances ; because he 
distinctly asserts that, not the Assyrians, who were then 
at the height of their power, but the Babylonians, shall 
be the instruments of the divine vengeance in consummat- 
ing Jerusalem's destruction. There is absolutely no 
reason for doubting the genuineness of this prediction. 
In it we have a prophetic basis for chapters 40-66, which 
follow. 

SEVENTH DAY— An Estimate of Hezekiah 

1. Hezekiah is mentioned thirty-one times in Isaiah 
36-39- Next to David he was the greatest king the 
Jews ever had. Throughout his entire reign Isaiah was 
his constant counselor. 

2. His deeds were important and manifold. He 
began his reign with a widespread reformation of reli- 
gion, and renovation and purification of the temple and 
its services (2 Kings 18:4; cf. 2 Chron. 29-30); he 
built a pool and an aqueduct to improve the water supply 
of Jerusalem (2 Kings 20: 20) ; he encouraged and pro- 
moted literature (Prov. 25:1); in short, he did that 
which was right as David his father had done, so that 
neither before nor after him was there a king like him 
(2 Kings 18: 5; cf. however 23:25). Jesus Ben-Sirach 



128 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



associates him with David and Josiah (Ecclus. 48:22; 
49:4). 

3. In his sickness he learned the true meaning of life, 
and was led to interpret God's discipline in terms of 
wisdom and love (Isa. 38: 17). In consequence of his 
vain display of his riches to the Babylonian envoys, he 
learned humility (2 Chron. 32:25-26); while by his 
rebellion against Assyria (2 Kings 18:7), he brought 
upon him and his people a series of events which taught 
him that the highest type of patriotism was faith in 
Jehovah-God. The secret of his life was prayer. 

4. Side by side for nearly thirty years, the king and 
the prophet guided the ship of state, and by God's mercy 
Jerusalem was saved. 



Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye My People, Saith Your God. 

Isa. 40:1. 



The Voice of One That Crieth, Prepare Ye in the Wil- 
derness the Way of Jehovah; Make Level in the Desert a 
Highway for Our God. 

Isa. 40:3. 



To Whom Then will Ye Liken Me, That I Should be 
Equal to Him? Saith the Holy One. 

Isa. 40:25. 

But They That Wait for Jehovah Shall Renew Their 
Strength; They Shall Mount up with Wings as Eagles; 
They Shall Run and not be Weary; They Shall Walk, 
and not Faint. 

Isa. 40:31. 



STUDY TWELVE 



DELIVERANCE FROM CAPTIVITY THROUGH 
CYRUS (CHAPTERS 40-48) 

FIRST DAY— The Basis of Comfort, Israel's Incompar- 
able God (Chapter 40) 

1. We now pass to the great theme, so often enun- 
ciated by Isaiah, of Israel's redemption. The mass of 
Judah and all North Israel are in exile. It is not neces- 
sary, however, to suppose that all Judah have gone into 
captivity, or that the author himself was one of those 
carried away; much less that one hundred and fifty 
years elapsed between chapters 39 and 40. Sennach- 
erib had stripped Judah bare and had almost captured 
Jerusalem in 701 B. C. 

2. Postulate a prophet, therefore, who like Isaiah 
was constantly looking for comfort to the future (1 : 27- 
28; 2:2-4; 6:13; 7: 16; 8:4; 10:20-23; 11:6-16; 
17:14; 18:7; 19:19-25; 26:20; 29:5, 17-24; 30:31; 
31:8; 32:16-20; 33:17-24; 35:10; 37:26-29, 33-35; 
38 : 5-6) and chapters 40ff. find a most satisfactory 
setting at the close of the eighth century B. C. The 
problem of prime importance before the prophet's mind 
would naturally be to explain why Jehovah, the Holy 
One of Israel, allowed His own chosen people to be thus 
humiliated. 

3. He begins by pointing Israel to the infinite, all- 
wise, and all-powerful Jehovah, who, in comparison with 
other gods is incomparable (chapter 40). His logic is 
absolutely unanswerable. 



132 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



4. In the prologue (40: 1-11), he hears the four 
voices of grace (vs. 1-2), prophecy (vs. 3-5), faith 
(vs. 6-8), and evangelism (vs. 9-11). 

5. In verses 12-26 he describes the unique character 
of Israel's all but forgotten God. Jehovah, he unhesi- 
tatingly affirms, is infinite as compared with the created 
world (vs. 12-17), with other gods (vs. 18-20), or with 
the stars (vs. 21-26). 

6. Therefore, let no man suppose that Jehovah is 
ignorant of, or indifferent to, Israel's misery. The Holy 
One never faints nor wearies. On the contrary, he it 
is who sustains the faint and strengthens the weary. 
Israel must wait for salvation. They are clamoring for 
deliverance prematurely. Only wait, he repeats; for, 
with such a God Israel has no reason to despond (vs. 
27-31). 

SECOND DAY— The Supreme Proof of Jehovah's Sole 
Deity, His Power to Predict (Chapter 41) 

1. In chapter 40 the prophet had pointed to the 
wonderful works of creation as evidence of Jehovah's 
incomparable power and greatness; here in chapter 41, 
he challenges the nations to a public trial, in order that, 
not by an appeal to contemporary history, as some sup- 
pose, but by predicting a definite epoch-making event, 
which shall take place in the future, he may demonstrate 
Jehovah's sole deity, and therefore, his incomparable 
superiority to dumb idols. 

2. He inquires, "Who hath raised up one from the 
east?" Though the hero is left unnamed, Cyrus is 
doubtless in the prophet's mind (44: 28; 45: 1). He is 
not, however, already appearing upon the horizon of 
history, as is sometimes fancied, but rather predicted 



DELIVERANCE THROUGH CYRUS 133 



as sure to come. The verb-tenses which express com- 
pleted action are perfects of certainty, and are used in 
precisely the same manner as those in 3:8; 5:13; 21:9. 
The answer to the inquiry is, "I, Jehovah, the first, and 
with the last, I am he" (41 : 4). 

3. The prophet pauses to assure Israel of Jehovah's 
help. Israel is here for the first time called Jehovah's 
"servant," a relation which he has sustained to Jehovah 
ever since Abraham's call from "the ends of the earth," 
i.e., from Babylon, which is spoken of as a far-distant 
country to the author (41 : 9). 

4. At this point the dialogue shifts; it is no longer 
between Jehovah and the nations as in verses 1-7, but 
between Jehovah and the idols (vs. 21-29). Addressing 
the dumb idols Jehovah says: Predict something, if you 
are real deities (vs. 21-24). As for myself, I am going 
to raise up a hero from the north who will subdue all 
who oppose him. And I announce my purpose now in 
advance, "from the beginning," "beforetime," before 
there is the slightest ground for thinking that such a 
hero exists or ever will exist (v. 26), in order that the 
future may verify my prediction, and prove my sole 
deity. I, Jehovah, alone know the future. In verses 
25-29, the prophet even projects himself into the future 
and speaks from the standpoint of the fulfilment of his 
prediction. This, as we have seen, was a characteristic 
of Isaiah (cf. chapters 24-27). 

THIRD DAY— The Spiritual Agent of Redemption, 
Jehovah's "Servant" (Chapters 42:1—43:13) 

1. Not only a temporal agent (Cyrus) shall be 
raised up to mediate Israel's redemption, which is the 
first step in the process of the universal salvation con- 



184 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



templated, but a spiritual factor, Jehovah's "servant/' 
shall be employed in bringing the good tidings of salva- 
tion to the Gentiles also. 

2. In 42: 1-9 the prophet describes this ideal figure 
and the work he is called to execute: Jehovah's Spirit 
will rest upon him, he will teach the world true religion, 
he will restore Israel, and bring justice and light to the 
Gentiles, and his advent will be a definite guarantee of 
Jehovah's predictions. 

3. The glorious future evokes a brief hymn of thanks- 
giving for the redemption which the prophet beholds in 
prospect (42: 10-17). The time to redeem Israel is now 
come; Jehovah's glory is at stake (42: 8, 12) ; otherwise 
the heathen will claim that their gods have permanently 
wrested Israel out of Jehovah's hands. 

4. The philosophy of events is this: though Israel 
have long served as Jehovah's "servants," yet they have 
been blind and deaf to Jehovah's instructions (42:18- 
19), and he has found it necessary to punish them 
(42:22); but now he will redeem Israel that, through 
them, he may publish his law to all nations (42:21); 
if they will but "harken and hear for the time to come" 
(42: 23). 

5. To accomplish this end, Jehovah will ransom 
Israel at the cost of the most opulent and powerful 
nations of the world — Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba — and 
will gather them from the four corners of the earth 
(43: 1-7; cf. 11: llff). 

6. Let the nations therefore come again together for 
the trial. Who of them dare definitely predict the re- 
demption of Israel? Bui, says Jehovah, even you who 
are blind can bear witness that I have often foretold 
coming events which have actually come to pass (cf. 
37:26); I alone can do it. Besides me there is no 



DELIVERANCE THROUGH CYRUS 135 



Saviour (43:8-13). The prophet throughout professes 
to be foretelling future events. 

FOURTH DAY— Forgiveness, Jehovah's Pledge of 
Deliverance (Chapters 43:14 — 44:23) 

1. The prophet announces the fate of Babylon; in 
most general terms, however. He merely intimates that 
Israel's present oppressors shall no more prevent Jeho- 
vah from carrying out his redemptive plan than 
Pharaoh in Moses' time was able to thwart their exodus 
from Egypt. The new exodus, indeed, will eclipse the 
former in glory (43: 14-21). 

2. Jehovah's determination to redeem Israel is all 
of grace; the exiles have done nothing worthy of so 
great redemption. They have offered neither prayer 
nor sacrifices of any kind. Jehovah has blotted out 
their transgressions for his own sake (43:25). Salva- 
tion is a gift. "This passage marks the highest point 
of grace in the Old Testament." (Dillmann.) 

3. Filled with Jehovah's Spirit Israel will subse- 
quently attract the nations (44: 1-5). Jehovah is King 
as well as Redeemer. His sole deity is attested by his 
power to predict future events; he has done so in the 
past and he can do so now. Future events are known 
to him alone (44: 6-8). His prophecies will have special 
value when they have been fulfilled. There is no Rock 
like Israel's God. 

4. Gods of wood and stone are nonentities. The 
prophet takes his reader into an idol manufactury, and 
shows him how the smiths and carpenters, with axes and 
hammers, planes and compasses, hew out of cedar trees 
and oaks gods before which they bow down and worship ; 
the residue of which they use as fuel. Such people, he 



136 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



unhesitatingly affirms, are blind and dull of heart, and 
are "feeding on ashes." The passage as a whole is a 
most remorseless exposure of the folly of idolatry (44: 9- 
20). 

5. Finally he exhorts: Above all else, let Israel 
remember that forgiveness is Jehovah's pledge of deliver- 
ance (44: 21-23). 

FIFTH DAY— Cyrus, Jehovah's Agent in Israel's Deliver- 
ance (Chapters 44:24—45:25) 

1. The prophet at length names the hero — Cyrus, 
and describes his mission: he shall build Jerusalem and 
lay the foundations of the temple (44: 28) ; he shall also 
subdue nations and let the exiles go free (45:1, 13). 
These minute specifications were necessary in order to 
make his predictions definite and certain, and so prove 
his thesis. 

2. He speaks of Cyrus in the most extraordinary, 
almost extravagant, terms. He is Jehovah's "shepherd" 
(44:28) — "the name Cyrus in Elamite is said to mean 
shepherd" (A. B. Davidson) ; he is also Jehovah's 
"anointed," i.e., Messiah (45: 1), "the man of my coun- 
sel" (46: 11), whom Jehovah has called by name, and 
surnamed without his ever knowing him (45 : 3-4) ; 
"whom Jehovah loveth" (48:14), whose right hand 
Jehovah upholdeth (45:1), and who will perform all 
Jehovah's pleasure (45:28); though but "a ravenous 
bird from the east" (46: 11). 

3. The vividness with which the prophet speaks of 
Cyrus leads some to suppose that the latter is already 
upon the horizon. This, however, is a mistake. Scarcely 
would a contemporary have spoken in such terms of the 
real Cyrus of 538 B. C. The same prophecy regards 



DELIVERANCE THROUGH CYRUS 137 



him (i.e., the Cyrus of prediction; not the Cyrus of his- 
tory) as the fulfilment of predictions spoken long 
before. That is to say, in one and the same context, 
Cyrus is both predicted and treated as a proof that a 
prediction is in him being fulfilled (44:24-28; 45:21). 
Such phenomena in prophecy can be explained best by 
supposing that the prophet projected himself into the 
future from an earlier age. Isaiah frequently did so, 
as we have seen in chapters 24-27. 

4. Most extraordinary of all, in 45:14-17, the 
prophet soars in imagination until he sees, as a result 
of Cyrus' victories, the conquered nations renouncing 
their idols, and attracted to Jehovah as the Saviour of 
all mankind (45:22). On any theory of origin, the 
predictive element in these prophecies is written large. 

5. Josephus tells us that when Cyrus found his name 
written in "the prophecies which Isaiah left behind him 
two hundred and twenty years before/' an earnest desire 
and ambition seized upon him to fulfill what was written" 
(Antiquities, XI., 1, 2). 

SIXTH DAY— The Overthrow of Babylon 
(Chapters 46-47) 

1. Chapters 46-47 further describe the destructive 
work of Cyrus, though Cyrus himself is but once referred 
to. Particular emphasis is laid on the complete collapse 
of the Babylonian religion; the prophet is apparently 
more concerned with the humiliation of Babylon's idols 
than with the fall of the city itself. Of course the de- 
struction of the city would imply the defeat of her gods, 
as also the emancipation of Israel. 

2. The prophet draws a striking contrast between 
the ignominious flight of Babylon's idols, borne into 



138 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



exile from the captured city on the backs of wearied 
beasts, and the matchless power of Jehovah, who, instead 
of being borne, is able to bear His people. Even Bel, 
the chief god of the Babylonian pantheon, and Nebo, 
the interpreter of the gods, are powerless to help (46: 1- 
2). 

3. The proof which is given again in support of 
Jehovah's incomparable superiority and unique deity, is 
His power to predict "the end from the beginning" and 
bring his predictions to pass (46: 10-11). With un- 
wonted severity he addresses his hearers as, "trans- 
gressors" (46: 8), and "stout-hearted that are far from 
righteousness" (46: 12); yet in spite of them, salvation 
is the determined goal of coming events (46: 13). 

4. Chapter 47 is a dirge over the downfall of the 
imperial city, strongly resembling the taunt-song on the 
king of Babylon in 14:4-21. Babylon is addressed as 
a "tender and delicate" queen, the mistress of kingdoms, 
who because of her boastfulness and cruelty, will be de- 
throned and led into captivity to a distant land and there 
made to grind as a slave behind the millstones (47 : 1-7). 

5. No amount of sorcery or enchantment or science 
of astrology will suffice to avert the divine desolation 
which will one dav fall upon the haughty capital (47: 8- 
15). 

SEVENTH DAY— A Hortatory Summary of the Argu- 
ment (Chapter 48) 

1. Chapter 48 in the main is a brief recapitulation 
of the arguments insisted on in chapters 40-47 ; certain 
points being touched upon and emphasized for the last 
time: 

(1) Jehovah's unique power to predict. Let the 
house of Jacob know and understand that Jehovah's 



DELIVERANCE THROUGH CYRUS 



139 



method of predicting future events and fulfilling his 
predictions has been vindicated by history over and over 
aganx, some predictions having been announced long in 
advance, others on the eve of their accomplishment; yea, 
and that his new prediction concerning the redemption 
of Israel will also be vindicated, for he will surely bring 
it to pass. Idols are nonentities (48: 1-8). 

(2) That salvation is of grace. Let the house of 
Jacob know also and understand that Israel's redemption 
is not for their sake but for Jehovah's; "For mine own 
sake, for mine own sake, will I do it" (48: 9-1 1). 

(3) That Cyrus, as Jehovah's agent, will faithfully 
perform all his pleasure on Babylon. His advent will 
be the crowning proof of Jehovah's abiding presence 
among his people. In order that the evidence may be 
perfectly clear, Jehovah makes bold to call him openly, 
"not in secret," and in advance of his advent, even "from 
the beginning," in order that men may be obliged to 
confess that God has done it, by his Spirit (48: 12-16). 

(4) That God's chastisements upon the nation were 
intended to be disciplinary. For had Israel only learned 
the lessons which God was all along trying to teach them 
through their afflictions and sufferings, then had their 
peace been like a river, and their righteousness as the 
waves of the sea (48: 17-19). 

(5) But even now, the prophet exhorts them to accept 
of Jehovah's proffered salvation; and he closes with a 
jubilant summons addressed to the believing exiles, bid- 
ding them to depart from Babylon and publish to all the 
world the story of their redemption. Alas ! that there 
is no peace or salvation for the godless (48: 20-22). 

2. Thus ends the first division of Isaiah's remarkable 
vision of Israel's deliverance from captivity through 
Cyrus. 



A Bruised Reed will He not Break, and a Dimly Burning 
Wick will He not Quench; He will Bring Forth Justice 
in Truth. 

Isa. 42:3. 

Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs, and Carried Our Sor- 
rows: yet We did Esteem Him Stricken, Smitten of God, and 
Afflicted. But He was Wounded for Our Transgressions, 
He was Bruised for Our Iniquities; the Chastisement of Our 
Peace was upon Him; and with His Stripes We are Healed. 

Isa. 53:4, 5. 

Ho, Every One That Thirsteth, Come Ye to the Waters, 
and He That Hath no Money; Come Ye, Buy, and Eat; 
Yea, Come, Buy Wine and Milk without Money and with- 
out Price. 

Isa. 55:1. 

Seek Ye Jehovah while He may be Found; Call Ye upon 
Him while He is near: Let the Wicked Forsake His Way, 
and the Unrighteous Man His Thoughts; and Let Him Re- 
turn unto Jehovah, and He will have Mercy upon Him; 
and to Our God, for He will Abundantly Pardon. 

Isa. 55:6, 7. 



STUDY THIRTEEN 



THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH (CHAPTERS 49-57) 

FIRST DAY— The Prophetic Setting of the "Servant 

Songs" 

1. With chapter 49 the prophet leaves off attempting 
further to prove the sole deity of Jehovah by means of 
prediction, and drops entirely his description of Cyrus* 
victories and the overthrow of Babylon, in order to set 
forth in greater detail the character and mission of the 
spiritual agent of salvation — the Servant of Jehovah. 

2. Already, in chapters 40-48, he had alluded several 
times to this unique and somewhat enigmatical personage, 
speaking of him both collectively and as an individual 
(41: 8-10; 42: 1-9, 18-22; 43: 10; 44: 1-5, 21-28; 45: 4; 
48:20-22); but now he defines with greater precision 
both his prophetic and priestly functions, his equipment 
for his taskj his sufferings and humiliation, and also his 
final exaltation. Altogether in these prophecies he men- 
tions the Servant some twenty times. 

S. There are four so-called distinctively ' 'Servant 
Songs/' in which the prophet seems to rise above the 
collective masses of all Israel to at least a personification 
of the pious within Israel, or, better, to a unique Person 
embodying within himself all that is best in the Israel 
within Israel. They are the following: 

(1) Chapter 42: 1-9, a poem descriptive of the Ser- 
vant's gentle manner and world-wide mission. This is 
followed, as we have seen in the previous Study, by 
prophecies concerning Cyrus and the fall of Babylon. 

(2) Chapter 49: 1-13, describing the Servant's mission 



142 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



and spiritual success; followed by promises of comfort 
to Zion (49: 14—50: 3). 

(3) Chapter 50:4-11, the Servant's soliloquy con- 
cerning his perfection through suffering; followed again 
by messages of comfort and encouragement to the be- 
lievers in Zion (51: 1 — 52: 12). 

(4) Chapters 52:13—53:12, the Servant's vicarious 
suffering and ultimate exaltation; followed by a vivid 
description of Zion's future prosperity and glory (chap- 
ter 54), and an urgent invitation to men immersed in 
business to accept of God's proffered salvation (chapter 
55) : even proselytes and eunuchs being allowed to share 
in the blessings of redemption (56:1-8); the section 
closing with a scathing rebuke to faithless shepherds and 
sensual idolaters (56:9 — 57:21). 

SECOND DAY— -The First of the Four "Servant Songs" 
(Chapter 42: 1-9) 

1. The prophet had already prepared the way for a 
definite introduction of Jehovah's individual Servant, by 
designating "Israel" as Jehovah's Servant in 41:8-16; 
describing him as having been chosen of God when 
Abraham was called from the ends of the earth, as being 
conscious of God's call, and as assured by Jehovah of 
glorious victory (41:8-16). In this passage the entire 
nation seems to be present to the prophet's mind. 

2. The first of the four distinctively "Servant Songs" 
is found in 42: 1-9. Several important features are 
mentioned in it as characteristic of the Servant's person 
and work. (1) His endowment: Jehovah puts his spirit 
upon him. (2) His mission: he will bring forth justice 
to the Gentiles, i.e., he will teach the nations honesty 
and righteousness. (3) His method: not violence, but 



THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 



143 



meekness and peace are the means which he employs to 
bring salvation. (4) His success: he will not fail or 
be discouraged till he has performed his entire mission. 
(5) His mediatorial office: a covenant of the people. 
"I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness, and will 
hold thy hand_, and will keep thee, and give thee for a 
covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles" 
(42:6). 

3. If we inquire who this Servant is, our answer will 
depend largely on our opinion as to when the prophecy 
was composed. If chapters 40-66 are exilic (550-538 
B. C), then the Servant cannot well be an individual, 
but Israel collectively considered; on the other hand, if 
Isaiah wrote these oracles at the close of the eighth cen- 
tury B. C, then the Servant might consistently be con- 
ceived of, in vision, as arising from the sorrows of the 
exile already begun, even as Immanuel is conceived of 
by Isaiah as arising from the devastations of Assyria 
(chapters 7-8). To the present writer the latter is not 
only possible but probable. 

THIRD DAY— The Second of the Four "Servant Songs" 
(Chapter 49: 1-13) 

1. It is somewhat confusing, after the lofty picture 
of the ideal and apparently individual Servant described 
in 42: 1-9, that the prophet should revert to all Israel 
as Jehovah's Servant, as in 42: 18-22; 43: 10; 44: 1-5, 
21-28; 45:4; 48:20-22; for it is quite obvious that in 
all these passages he is alluding to the masses of the 
people as a whole, reproving, consoling, admonishing 
and reassuring them. 

2. But he soon recovers himself ; and in the second 
of the four "Servant Songs" (49: 1-13) makes a distinct 



144 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



advance over the first, in the development of the Servant's 
mission and experience. The Servant is here a prophet, 
whose sphere is world-wide. Called by Jehovah from 
his mother's womb (49: l 3 5), given by him for a cove- 
nant of the people to gather Israel and re-allot to them 
their desolate land (49: 8), he will be a light also to the 
Gentiles (49: 6). 

3. The song is the natural sequel to that in 42: 1-9. 
The new features are: (1) the Servant's consciousness 
of his mission (49:1-3); (2) his confession of failure 
in the past (49: 4) ; and (3) his quickened faith in the 
revelation that Jehovah has raised him up for a still 
greater purpose, namely, to be his organ of salvation to 
the ends of the earth (49: 5-6). Yet he plainly sees that 
before he can perform his mission to the nations he must 
do a preliminary work for his own people. 

4. If, again,, we ask who the Servant in this second 
poem is, our decision will probably halt between Israel 
and a personification of the truly spiritual Israel; for 
in verse 3 "Israel" is explicitly declared to be Jehovah's 
Servant, whereas in verse 5 the Servant is distinguished 
from Israel as the redeemer of Israel. The dominant 
notes of the passage point to a personification. 

FOURTH DAY— The Third of the Four "Servant Songs" 
(Chapter 50:4-11) 

1. In the third of these poems the Servant is intro- 
duced by the prophet as speaking of himself and his 
work in monologue or soliloquy. "The Lord Jehovah 
hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that 
I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary" 
(50:4). 

2. Speaking thus in the first person the Servant 



THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 145 



describes the prophetic aspect of his own character. "He 
possesses the two fundamental qualifications of an ideal 
prophet: willingness to listen as often as God speaks, 
and willingness always to utter without demur whatever 
God commands." (Orelli.) 

3. It is in this Song that we hear for the first time 
of the bitter scorn and contumely through which he is 
compelled to pass (50: 6-9) ; also, of the patient manner 
in which, in the discharge of his commission, he bore the 
abuse and insult which were heaped upon him, ever sus- 
tained by a steadfast faith in Jehovah's willingness to 
help. On the other hand, the prophet adds, only retri- 
bution and sorrow await those who, refusing to listen to 
God's ideal Servant, oppose him (50: 10-11). 

4. In this Song, as in the first of the series, the Ser- 
vant is free from all national limitations. The concept 
is not bound to Israel either in their totality, or as a 
spiritual church. Rather the Servant is portrayed as 
an individual, as a prophet, sinless, and obedient to the 
divine will; submissively patient, because conscious of 
Jehovah's unfailing support. In short, he is described 
as an ideal prophet made perfect through sufferings. 

5. The term "Servant" occurs but once only in the 
poem, and then near its end (50: 10). 

FIFTH DAY— The Last of the Four "Servant Songs" 
(Chapters 52: 13—53: 12) 

1. In this fourth and last of the "Servant Songs" 
(52: 13 — 53: 12), we reach the climax of the prophet's 
inspired symphony, and the acme also of Hebrew 
prophecy. The profoundest thoughts in the Old Testa- 
ment revelation are to be found in this section. It is a 
vindication of the Servant, so clear and so true, and 



146 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



wrought out with such a pathos and potency, that it 
holds first place in Messianic prophecy. So far as fact 
and accuracy of description are concerned, it might well 
have been composed after the tragedy on Calvary. Poly- 
carp called it "the golden passional of the Old Testa- 
ment. " 

2. The chapter division at the end of 52: 15 is unfor- 
tunate; 52: 13-15 forms an integral portion of this beau- 
tiful and pathetic poem. It consists of five strophes of 
three verses each: the first of which describes the Ser- 
vant's destiny (52: 13-15); the second, his career (53: 1- 
3); the third, his suffering (53:4-6); the fourth, his 
submission (53:7-9); the fifth, his reward (53: 10-12). 

3. The idea of death is a new thought in this song 
(53: 7-9). In the previous songs the Servant had been 
described as a prophet; here he is pictured as a priest, 
vicariously suffering for the sins of others, "to whom the 
stroke was due" (53:8). He is a sin-bearing martyr, 
meek and patient ; a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief. 

4. "He was despised and rejected of men" (53:3). 
With this verse Handel opens the second part of his 
great oratorio, "The Messiah." It is said that at this 
point in its composition, he was found with his head upon 
the table, weeping. "He was wounded for our trans- 
gressions" (53:5); concerning this verse, Spurgeon is 
said to have remarked, "I have lost the power to doubt 
him when I see those wounds." 

5. The most striking feature of the prophet's portrait 
is the unparalleled sufferings of the Servant and the effect 
they produce on the minds of his contemporaries. "It is 
a most remarkable anticipation of the sufferings of 
Christ and the glory that should follow." (Skinner.) 

6. Henceforth we hear no more of "the Servant of 



THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 147 



Jehovah/' but of "the servants of Jehovah" (54:17; 
56:6; 63:17; 65:8, 9, 13, 14, 15; 66:14; cf. however 
61: 1-3). The lesson is patent. 

SIXTH DAY— Who the Servant of Jehovah Is 

1. Opinions vary. The popular view is that the 
suffering Servant of chapters 40-66 is the loyal, spiritual 
kernel of Israel personified. 

2. Delitzsch's view is suggestive ; namely, that the 
idea of the Servant of Jehovah, to speak figuratively, 
is a pyramid. The lowermost basis is the whole of 
Israel: the middle section, Israel after the Spirit; while 
the summit is the person of the Mediator of salvation 
arising out of Israel. 

3. A. B. Davidson's view is also worthy of mention. 
According to it, the Servant is the hidden Israel within 
Israel, abstracted and personified as a being, conceived 
of not as a collective, but as a unity. The ideal of a 
Servant is primary, those in whom the ideal is incarnate 
are secondary. The prophet does not idealize the actual, 
he actualizes the ideal. In short, the Servant is a con- 
ception incarnated, a being which does not belong to the 
Israel of any particular age, but which is permanent. 

4. But Davidson is frank to acknowledge that his 
view is bound up with the critical date which he assigns 
these prophecies, namely, just before the restoration 
under Cyrus (536 B. C), and that from the point of 
view of the exile the Servant of Jehovah can hardly 
have been an individual. On the other hand, he allows, 
if Isaiah were the author, that "he might have looked 
forward to such a great individual and have placed his 
rise amidst the sorrows of the exile, just as in the earlier 
chapters, Immanuel appears to rise in the midst of the 



148 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



devastations caused by the Assyrian invasion." (Old 
Testament Prophecy, p. 440.) 

5. Fortunately the difference between a person and 
a personification is not great. To the present writer the 
Servant of Jehovah in these passages rises to the full 
stature of an individual. 

SEVENTH DAY— The Fulfilment of these Prophecies 

in Christ 

1. Whatever attitude we assume toward these oracles, 
whether as critics we are concerned only to discover 
what the prophet intended, or as theologians, we consider 
it of no consequence what subject the prophet actually 
had in mind, practically all are agreed that these pre- 
dictions find their ultimate fulfilment in Christ. 

2. When the evangelist Philip joined himself to the 
chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch, he heard him reading 
Isa. 53:7-8, "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; 
and as a lamb before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth 
not his mouth;" and when asked by the eunuch to explain 
the passage, "Philip opened his mouth and beginning 
from this scripture, preached unto him Jesus (Acts 8 : 26- 
35). The New Testament is the authoritative expounder 
of Messianic prophecy. 

3. Speaking of the Servant in chapter 53, Prof. 
George Adam Smith says: "Whether this figure be of the 
pious portion of Israel or of one holy sufferer, the Chris- 
tian church has been right in finding its fulfilment in 
Jesus Christ; in his sinless suffering, in his conscious- 
ness of his solitary distinction from his people; in his 
knowledge that his suffering was of God's will, and 
would effect the forgiveness of his people's sin, their 
redemption from guilt, and so his own exaltation from 



THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 149 



misunderstanding and abuse to manifest power and 
glory." 

4. And Oehler makes the following general remark 
concerning these passages: "In these discourses the con- 
templation of the prophet ascends by stages as it were 
from the foundation walls of a cathedral, inclosing a 
large space, to the giddy height of the towering summit 
upon which the Cross has been planted; and the nearer 
it approaches the summit, the clearer appears the out- 
line of the Cross fixed there: arrived at top, it rests in 
peace, for it has reached what was desired when it began 
to ascend the first steps of the temple tower/' 

5. The Servant of Jehovah has been realized in the 
Son of Man. 



Behold, Jehovah's Hand is not Shortened, That It can- 
not Save; neither His Ear Heavy, That It caxxot Hear. 

Isa. 59: 1. 



Arise, Shine; for Thy Light is Come, axd the Glory of 
Jehovah is Risen upon Thee. 

Isa. 60:1. 

Who are These That Fly as a Cloud, astd as the Doves 
to Their Windows? 

Isa. 60:8. 

The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me; because 
Jehovah Hath Anointed Me to Preach Good Tidings unto 
the Meek; He Hath Sent Me to Bind up the Broken 
Hearted, to Proclaim Liberty to the Captives, and the 
Opening of the Prison to Them That are Bound. 

Isa. 61:1. 

Who is This That Cometh from Edom, with Dyed Gar- 
ments FROM BOZRAH? THIS THAT IS GLORIOUS IN HlS APPAREL, 

Marching in the Greatness of His Strength? I That 
Speak in Righteousness, Mighty to Save. 

Isa. 63:1. 



STUDY FOURTEEN 



THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD 
(CHAPTERS 58-66) 

FIRST DAY — True Fasting and Faithful Sabbath Observ- 
ance (Chapter 58) 

1. Having described in chapters 49-57 the spiritual 
agent of Israel's salvation, the Servant of Jehovah, the 
prophet proceeds in this last section (chapters 58-66) 
to define the conditions on which salvation may be en- 
joyed. He begins as in the two preceding sections 
(chapters 40-48 and 40-57) with a double imperative, 
"Cry aloud, spare not" (58 : 1 ; cf. 40 : 1 ; 49 : 1). 

2. He emphasizes true fasting and faithful Sabbath 
observance first (chapter 58). In verses 1-5, he rebukes 
the people because of the utter hollowness of their ritual; 
in verses 6-12, he counsels them to feed the hungry, house 
the poor and clothe the naked; while in verses 13-14, he 
promises them triumphant possession of their own land 
provided they cheerfully and faithfully sanctify the 
Sabbath (cf. 56:2). 

3. Originally there was but one legal fast day in the 
Hebrew calendar, the great Day of Atonement, on which 
it was enjoined to afflict not the body but the soul (Lev. 
16:29-31). The practice of fasting, however, was fre- 
quently resorted to by ancient Israel as a means of pro- 
pitiating Deity (Judges 20: 26; 1 Sam. 7:6; 12: 1 6, 21- 
23; 1 Kings 21: 12, 27), and as an expression of grief 
(1 Sam. 31 : 13; 2 Sam. 1 : 12). In Isaiah's day religion 
in general had degenerated into mere ceremonial (Isa. 



152 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



1:10-17). Men fasted and at the same time carried 
on their secular employments (58: 3). 

4. As with fastings so with the observance of the 
Sabbath. All reverence for the seventh day had van- 
ished. Accordingly, the prophet reminds Israel that 
the Sabbath is holy ground which may not be trodden 
with irreverent feet: that it is a sanctuary, and "the 
holy of Jehovah" — a very remarkable designation for 
this most ancient of all sacred institutions (Gen. 2: 1-3) 
— and that Israel should delight in and honor it (58: 13- 

14) . 

SECOND DAY— Hindrances to Israel's Salvation 
Removed (Chapter 59) 

1. It is Israel's sins, says the prophet, which have 
hidden Jehovah's face and retarded the nation's salva- 
tion. Their hands are defiled with blood; they speak 
lies and trust in vanity. "None sueth in righteousness. " 
Murder, lying, injustice and violence fill the catalogue 
of their sins. The nation is wholly corrupt (59: 1-8). 
Such a picture is certainly too somber for the period of 
the exile, and it hardly describes the social conditions 
of Nehemiah's age; but it finds an almost exact counter- 
part in the prophecies of the eighth century B. C. 
(Isa. 1). 

2. In verse 9 the prophet identifies himself with the 
people and leads them in their devotions. They confess 
that their sins testify against them (v. 12), and that 
they have denied Jehovah, practiced oppression, and 
spoken words of falsehood (v. 13). They therefore pray 
for peace and forgiveness, for light and justice (vs. 9- 

15) . 

3. With verse 15 the prophet's tone changes to that 



ISRAEL'S FUTURE GLORY 153 



of anticipation. Jehovah is grieved over Israel's forlorn 
condition and, seeing their helplessness, he arms himself 
like a divine warrior to interfere judicially. He puts 
on righteousness as a coat of mail, sets upon his head 
the helmet of salvation, wears vengeance for clothing 
and zeal as a mantle, his only weapon being his arm, 
with which he brings salvation (vs. 15-19). 

4. The scene is an ideal representation of the restora- 
tion of the nation from exile (cf. Rom. 11:26). Israel 
shall be redeemed. With them as the nucleus of a new 
nation, Jehovah will enter anew into covenant relation, 
and put his Spirit upon them which shall abide with 
them henceforth and forever (vs. 20-21). 

THIRD DAY— The Future Blessedness of Zion 
(Chapters 60-61) 

1. Chapter 60 is the characteristic chapter of this 
section, containing a prophetic representation of the 
New Jerusalem. The long looked-for 'light" (cf. 
59:9) begins to dawn: "Arise, shine; for thy light is 
come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee" 
(60:1). 

2. At this point the prophet paints a picture of the 
redeemed community. As in 2 : 2-4 the Gentiles are 
seen flocking to Zion. They place their wealth at the 
disposal of the new Jewish state (60:3-5). Israel's 
scattered sons also stream home by land and sea, like a 
"fleet of white sailed ships making for Palestinian havens 
and resembling a flight of doves speeding to their cotes" 
(60:8-9). 

3. Zion becomes the mistress of the nations. For- 
eigners build her walls, and her gates are kept open con- 
tinually without fear of siege. The Gentiles acknowl- 



154 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



edge that Zion is the spiritual center of the world, whose 
walls denote "Salvation" and whose gates are called 
"Praise." Even Israel's oppressors regard Jerusalem 
as "the city of Jehovah, the Zion of the Holy One of 
Israel/' and as "an eternal excellency/' in which Jehovah 
sits as its everlasting light in the midst of a strong and 
victorious theocracy (60: 10-21). 

4. In chapter 61, which Henry Drummond has called 
"the programme of Christianity/' the Servant of Jehovah 
is again introduced, though anonymously, as the herald 
of salvation. "The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon 
me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good 
tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the 
broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives" 
(61:1-3). 

5. This gospel monologue of the Servant is followed 
by a promise of Jerusalem's restoration and blessedness 
(61:4-11). Thus the prophecy moves steadily forward 
towards its goal in Jesus Christ (cf. Luke 4: 18-21). 

FOURTH DAY— Zion's Salvation Drawing Near 
(Chapters 62: 1—63:6) 

1. Jehovah, who has long been silent (cf. 42:14; 
57: 11), resolves finally to bring his word to pass. "For 
Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's 
sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as 
brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burnetii" 
(62: 1). 

2. Zion's salvation draweth near. Israel is urged to 
hasten their necessary preparation to depart out of cap- 
tivity. "Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye 
the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; 
gather out the stones; lift up an ensign for the peoples. 



ISRAEL'S FUTURE GLORY 



155 



. . . . Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salva- 
tion cometh" (62: 10-11). 

3. The nations will be spectators of the great event. 
A new name which will better symbolize her true char- 
acter shall be given to Zion, namely, Hephzibah, "My 
delight is in her"; for Jerusalem shall no more be called 
Desolate. Judah too shall receive a new title which 
will better express the new conditions, namely, Beulah, 
that is "Married 5 '; for Jehovah delighteth in her, and 
her land shall be married (62: 2-5; cf. 54: 5). 

4. On the other hand, Zion's enemies will all be van- 
quished. In a brief poem of peculiar dramatic beauty 
(63: 1-6), the prophet portrays Jehovah's vengeance as 
a victorious warrior, upon all those who would retard 
Israel's deliverance. "Who is this that cometh from 
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? .... I have 
trodden the wine press alone; and of the peoples there 
was no man with me ; yea, I trod them in mine anger, and 
trampled them in my wrath; and their life-blood is 
sprinkled upon my garments" (63: 1, 3). 

5. Edom was Israel's inveterate foe. Hence the 
prophet represents Jehovah's judgment of the nations 
as taking place on Edom's unhallowed soil. Jehovah, 
whose mighty arm has wrought salvation, returns as 
victor, having slain all of Israel's foes. The poem is 
"a drama of divine vengeance." 

FIFTH DAY— Jehovah's "Servants" at Prayer 
(Chapters 63:7—64: 12) 

1. Jehovah's "servants" (63:17) resort to prayer. 
The prophet undertakes to put into words their feelings 
of thanksgiving, confession and supplication (63:7 — 
64: 12). The prayer is one of the most passionate utter- 



156 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



ances of its kind in the Old Testament. It is both pro- 
gressive and comprehensive. 

2. First, Israel's past under Moses is reviewed and 
Jehovah's lovingkindness to his chosen nation is made 
the basis of an appeal for renewed mercy. Forgiveness, 
they urge, is not founded on Israel's trust in God, but 
rather on God's trust in them, and his willingness to give 
them a fresh start (63: 8-9). 

3. They are fully conscious of having rebelled and 
grieved his holy Spirit. Only here and in Psalm 51: 11 
in the Old Testament is the term "holy Spirit" used as 
the personal designation of God's ethical nature. "Jeho- 
vah" and "the angel of his presence" and the "holy 
Spirit" are here distinguished "as three existences ; an 
unmistakable intimation of the mystery of the triune 
nature of the one God, which is revealed in historical ful- 
filment in the New Testament work of redemption." 
(Delitzsch.) 

4. They also appeal to Jehovah as the Begetter and 
Father of the nation (63: 16; 64: 8). With this thought 
of the fatherhood of God, Isaiah had opened his very first 
oracle to Judah and Jerusalem (1 : 2). The idea of Jeho- 
vah's fatherhood is rare in the Old Testament; still rarer 
the conception that Jehovah had caused Israel to err from 
his ways (63: 17). 

5. As the prayer proceeds the language becomes in- 
creasingly impetuous. The people are thrown into 
despair because Jehovah seems to have abandoned them 
altogether (63:19). Accordingly they cry out most 
passionately, "Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, 
that thou wouldest come down" (64:1)! They recog- 
nize that Jerusalem's condition is desperate. "Our holy 
and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, 
is burned with fire: and all our pleasant places are laid 



ISRAEL'S FUTURE GLORY 157 



waste" (64: 11). Such language, however, is the lan- 
guage of fervent prayer and must not be taken with rigid 
literalness, as 63: 18 and 3 : 8 plainly show. 

SIXTH DAY— Jehovah's Answer, Zion Triumphant 
(Chapters 65-66) 

1. Jehovah answers his people's supplications, dis- 
tinguishing sharply between his own "servants" and 
Israel's apostates (chapters 65-66). Only his chosen 
"seed" shall be delivered (65: 9). 

2. Those who have obdurately provoked Jehovah by 
sacrificing in gardens (65: 3; 66: 17), offering libations 
to Fortune and Destiny (65:11), sitting among the 
graves to obtain oracles from the dead, and, like the 
Egyptians, eating swine's flesh and broth of abominable 
things which were supposed to possess magical proper- 
ties, lodging in vaults or crypts in which heathen mys- 
teries were celebrated (65:4), and at the same time 
fancying that by celebrating such heathen mysteries they 
were holier than others and thereby disqualified to dis- 
charge the ordinary duties of life (65: 5) — such Jehovah 
designs to punish, measuring their work into their bosom 
and destroying them utterly with the sword (65: 7, 12). 

3. On the other hand, the "servants" of Jehovah shall 
inherit his holy mountains. They shall rejoice and sing 
for joy of heart, and bless themselves in the God of 
Amen, i.e., in the God of Truth (65 : 9j> 14, 16). Jehovah 
will create new heavens and a new earth, men will live 
and grow old like the patriarchs, they will possess houses 
and vineyards and enjoy them; for an era of idyllic peace 
will be ushered in with the coming of the Messianic age, 
in which even the natures of wild animals will be changed 



158 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



and the most rapacious beasts will live together in har- 
mony (65: 17-25). 

4. Religion will become spiritual and decentralized, 
mystic cults will disappear, incredulous scoffers will be 
silenced, Zion's population will be marvelously multiplied, 
and the people will be comforted and rejoice (66: 1-14). 
Furthermore, all nations will flock to Zion to behold 
Jehovah's glory, and from one new moon to another, and 
from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come up to 
worship in Jerusalem (66: 15-23). 

5. But those who sacrifice to idols and practice 
occult and mystic rites will be punished with fire and 
whirlwind and sword, and their dead bodies lying about 
the city will be a visible spectacle of divine warning and 
an emphatic proof of God's punitive justice (66:24). 
[This last verse of the book of Isaiah is the basis of the 
later Jewish conception of Gehenna, or hell, as the place 
of everlasting punishment.] 

SEVENTH DAY— Concluding Observations 

1. It is evident that the book of Isaiah closes prac- 
tically as it begins, with a polemic against false worship, 
and the alternate reward of the righteous and punish- 
ment of the wicked. The prophet's audience from first 
to last consisted of two classes: (1) those who were 
formal and stereotyped in their religious observances 
(58:3-6; cf. 1:10-17), rebellious in heart (65:2; cf. 
1: 2, 23), ever provoking Jehovah to his face (65: 3; cf. 
3:8), guilty of violence and bloodshed (59:6, 7; cf. 
1: 15), sunken in idolatry and practicing foreign mys- 
teries (65:3-11; cf. 2:6-8), sacrificing in gardens — a 
custom not mentioned in the Old Testament outside the 
book of Isaiah (65:3; 66:17; cf. 1:29), who, because 



ISRAEL'S FUTURE GLORY 159 

of their transgressions, are destined to be , destroyed 
(66:24; cf. 1:24-31); and (2) the righteous, who are 
to be redeemed (65: 9; cf. 6: 13), and enjoy paradisaic 
peace, even the wild beasts sharing in and contributing 
to their joy and happiness (65: 25; cf. 11: 6-9). 

2. The only essential difference between the prophet's 
earlier and later oracles is this : Isaiah in his riper years, 
on the basis of nearly half a century's experience, paints 
a much brighter eschatological picture than was possible 
in his early ministry. His picture of the Messianic age 
not only transcends those of his contemporaries in the 
eighth century B. C, but he penetrates regions beyond 
the spiritual horizon of any and all other Old Testament 
seers. Such language as that contained in 66: 1-2 in 
particular, anticipates the great principle enunciated by 
Jesus in John 4: 24, namely, that "God is a Spirit: and 
they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 

3. To attempt to date such oracles as these on the 
basis of internal evidence is an absolute impossibility. 
Ordinary prophecy may indeed within limits be dated 
in this way; not so these later oracles of Isaiah. They 
are not ordinary; they are extraordinary; they are 
theology. Humanly speaking one epoch could produce 
such revelations quite as easily as another. But no 
epoch could have produced them apart from the Divine 
Spirit. 



It Pleased Jehovah, for His Righteousness' Sake, to Mag- 
nify the Law, and Make It Honorable. 

Isa. 42:21. 

For Thou art Our Father, though Abraham Knoweth 
Us not, and Israel Doth not Acknowledge Us: Thou, O 
Jehovah, art Our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting 
is Tht Name. 

Isa. 63:16. 

For, Behold, I Create New Heavens and a New Earth; 
and the Former Things Shall not be Remembered, nor Come 
into Mind. 

Isa. 65:17. 

As One Whom His Mother Comforteth, so well I Com- 
fort You; and Ye Shall be Comforted in Jerusalem. 

Isa. 66:13. 

And It Shall Come to Pass, That from one New Moon to 
another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh 
Come to Worship before Me, Saith Jehovah. 

Isa. 66:23. 



STUDY FIFTEEN 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 

FIRST DAY— Studies One and Two 
I. — Isaiah's Life and Writings 

1. Recount the chief points in Isaiah's personal 
history. 

2. Give an account of his call to the prophetic office. 

3. Define his political and spiritual horizon. 

4. In what sense was Isaiah a genuine patriot? 

5. What is to be said of his literary genius and style? 

6. What does tradition say concerning his end? 

7. Mention some of the latest literature on Isaiah. 

II. — Analysis of the Book of Isaiah 

1. Name the six general divisions of Isaiah's book. 

2. Give a somewhat minute analysis of chapters 1-12. 

3. Mention the foreign nations, whose fortunes af- 
fected Judah and Jerusalem, against whom Isaiah 
prophesied in chapters 13-23. 

4. Summarize the contents of Jehovah's world- judg- 
ment in chapters 24-27. 

5. Give the gist of Isaiah's warnings in chapters 
28-33 against alliance with Egypt. 

6. Show the relation of the historical section in chap- 
ters 36-39 both to that which precedes and that which 
follows. 

7. Give a general analysis of chapters 40-66. 



162 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



SECOND DAY— Studies Three and Four 
III. — The Period of Isaiah 

1. Describe the conditions which prevailed in western 
Asia, especially in Judah, under Uzziah. 

2. What new world-power broke over the horizon 
during the reign of Jotham? 

3. Give the details of the Syro-Ephraimitic war. 

4. Trace the events which led up to the crisis of 
722 B. C. 

5. Tell something about Sargon II. and his relation 
to Merodach-Baladan. 

6. Describe in chronological order the principal 
events of the year 701 B. C. 

7. What was Judah's condition, socially, politically 
and religiously, during the closing years of Isaiah's min- 
istry ? 

IV. — Isaiah's Prophecies Chronologically Arranged 

1. Of what value is the editorial arrangement of 
Isaiah's prophecies in attempting to date his oracles 
chronologically ? 

2. Which probably were Isaiah's earliest messages? 

3. Which oracles are to be associated with the crisis 
of 734 B. C? 

4. Which prophecies seem to have sprung from the 
dark period just prior to the downfall of Samaria? 

5. Name those prophecies which pretty certainly 
date from the period of Sargon's reign over Assyria. 

6. Which sections of Isaiah's book seem to have had 
their origin shortly prior to the invasion of Sennacherib 
in 701 B. C? 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 163 



7. To what degree would oracles like those in chap- 
ters 40-66 bring comfort to the inhabitants of Judah and 
Jerusalem after the crisis of 701 B. C. ? 

THIRD DAY— Studies Five and Six 

V. — The Critical Problem 

1. What portions of the book do critics allow to be 
genuine ? 

2. Criticise the fundamental axiom of modern criti- 
cism. 

3. Mention certain governing criteria. 

4. What should be one's attitude to the problem? 

5. Sketch briefly the critical disintegration of the 
book. 

6. Are chapters 40-66 considered a unity? 

7. Trace the literary history of Isaiah's book. 

VI. — Judah's Social Sins (Chapters 1-6) 

1. What place does religion occupy in the well-being 
of society? 

2. Describe Isaiah's attitude to war. 

3. What was Judah's besetting sin? 

4. To what extent were the upper classes responsible 
for the nation's moral condition? 

5. Give a catalogue of Judah's national sins. 

6. What was the condition of the masses ? 

7. What were the inevitable consequences of the 
nation's downward tendency ? 



164 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



FOURTH DAY— Studies Seven and Eight 

VII. — Judah's Political Entanglements (Chapters 

7-12) 

1. Describe the Syro-Ephraimitic uprising and its 
effect upon King Ahaz. 

2. In what sense is the "Immanuel" passage, in 7 : 14, 
Messianic? 

3. Define "conspiracy" in its religious sense. 

4. Why did Jehovah find it necessary to send judg- 
ment on North Israel? 

5. What use did God make of Assyria in disciplining 
Judah? 

6. Describe the prophet's vision of Israel's return 
from exile. 

7. Correlate the distinctively Messianic passages 
(7: 14; 9: 6-7; 11: 1-2), and observe carefully their his- 
torical setting. 

VIII. — "Burdens" Concerning Foreign Nations 
(Chapters 13-23) 

1. What great lessons are taught by the oracles con- 
cerning Babylon? 

2. Give the principal points of interest in the oracle 
against Moab. 

3. What were Isaiah's messages to Philistia and 
Damascus, respectively ? 

4. In what way are Egypt and Ethiopia described 
as sharing in Jerusalem's salvation? 

5. Account for the prophet's almost sympathetic atti- 
tude toward Edom. 

6. Who was Shebna? Why was he deposed from 
office? 

7. Give a brief outline of the oracle against Tyre. 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 165 



FIFTH DAY— Studies Nine and Ten 

IX. — Spiritual Messages of Salvation (Chapters 

24-27) 

1. Distinguish between prophecy and apocalypse. 

2. What is the significance^ respectively ^ of the terms 
"earth" and "city" in these chapters? 

3. Account for the optimistic tone of the various 
songs contained in these prophecies. 

4. In what sense is life from the dead promised? 

5. What was Jehovah's object in chastising his 
people ? 

6. What seems to have been the historic standpoint 
of the author of these chapters? 

7. What was their practical value to Isaiah's own 
age? 

X. — A Series of Six Woes (Chapters 28-33) 

1. Give the gist of Isaiah's warning to the scoffing 
politicians of his time. 

2. Account for the tone of his "woe" against Ariel. 

3. What reproof does he give to those of Jerusalem 
who were hiding their plans from God? 

4. Summarize the prophet's vehement arraignment 
of the pro-Egyptian party. 

5. Describe the Messianic era which will eventually 
dawn upon Judah. 

6. What is the substance of Isaiah's "woe" against 
Assyria ? 

7. Recount the promises corresponding to the 
prophet's several "woes." 



166 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 

SIXTH DAY— Studies Eleven and Twelve 

XI. — History, Prophecy and Song (Chapters 36-39) 

1. Explain the phrase "the fourteenth year of King 
Hezekiah." 

2. Describe Sennacherib's two attempts to take 
Jerusalem. 

3. Give the contents of Isaiah's last formal prophecy 
concerning Assyria. 

4. Tell the story of Hezekiah's sickness and recovery. 

5. Sketch in outline Hezekiah's song of thanksgiving 
for extended life. 

6. What was the significance of Merodach-Baladan's 
embassy ? 

7. Give an estimate of Hezekiah's character and 
work. 

XII. — Deliverance from Captivity through Cyrus 

(Chapters 40-48) 

1. Trace the argument of chapter 40 and its bearing 
upon Israel's condition. 

2. What does the prophet argue is the supreme proof 
of Jehovah's sole deity? 

3. Upon what two agents, temporal and spiritual, 
does Israel's future depend? 

4. What pledge does Jehovah give of Israel's deliv- 
erance ? 

5. Mention some of the titles bestowed upon Cyrus, 
and show the historical relation of Cyrus to the prophet. 

6. W T hat great event will herald Israel's coming salva- 
tion ? 

7. Give a summary of the entire argument in chapters 
40-48. 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 167 



SEVENTH DAY— Studies Thirteen and Fourteen 
XIII. — The Servant of Jehovah (Chapters 49-57) 

1. Name the four so-called distinctively "Servant 
Songs/' and give some idea of their prophetic setting. 

2. What are the Servant's functions in 42: 1-9? 

3. Point out the new features concerning the Servant 
in 49: 1-13. 

4. How is the Servant described in 50: 4-11 ? 

5. Describe the Servant's character and sufferings 
as portrayed in 52: 13 — 53: 12. 

6. Who probably is the Servant of Jehovah? 

7. Show how these prophecies concerning the Servant 
have been fulfilled in Christ. 

XIV. — The Future Glory of the People of God 
(Chapters 58-66) 

1. What is taught concerning fasting and Sabbath 
observance ? 

2. Mention some of the hindrances to Israel's salva- 
tion which Jehovah promises to remove. 

3. Describe the future blessedness of Zion as depicted 
in chapters 60-61. 

4. What are the signs that Israel's salvation draweth 
near ? 

5. Give an analysis of Israel's passionate prayer for 
deliverance. 

6. What is Jehovah's gracious response? 

7. Show how the book of Isaiah begins and ends with 
essentially the same general thoughts. 



FAMILIAR PHRASES FROM ISAIAH 



The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint (1 : 5). 
Wise in their own eyes (5: 21). 
Woe is me (6:5). 
Here am I, send me (6:8). 
A little child shall lead them (11:6). 
The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
as the waters cover the sea (11:9). 
Blessed be Egypt (19: 25). 
Watchman, what of the night (21 : 11) ? 
Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die (22: 13). 
A feast of fat things (25 : 6). 

God will wipe away tears from off all faces (25: 8). 
Precept upon precept, line upon line (28: 10). 
A covenant with death (28: 15). 
A precious corner stone (28: 16). 

Draw near to me with their lips but their heart is far 
from me (29: 13). 

Speak unto us smooth things (30: 10). 

Bread of adversity and water of affliction (30: 20). 

This is the way, walk ye in it (30: 21). 

Ye shall have a song as in the night (30: 29). 

As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (32 : 2). 

The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll (34: 4). 

The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose 
(35:1). 

The lame man shall leap as an hart (35 : 6). 

The wayfaring man though a fool shall not err therein 

(35: 8). 

Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die and not live 
(38:1). 



FAMILIAR PHRASES 



169 



All flesh is grass (40:6). 

As a drop of a bucket (40: 15). 

He feedeth on ashes (44: 20). 

World without end (45: 17). 

Unto me every knee shall bow (45: 23). 

Even to old age and hoar hairs (46: 4). 

In the furnace of affliction (48: 10). 

Lick the dust (49: 23). 

I set my face like a flint (50: 7). 

Wax old as a garment (50: 9). 

The rock whence ye are hewn and the hole whence ye 
are digged (51 : 1). 

See eye to eye (52: 8). 

As a root out of a dry ground, having no form or come- 
liness (53: 2). 

A man of sorrows (53: 3). 

All we like sheep have gone astray (53: 6). 

Brought as a lamb to the slaughter (53: 7). 

Lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes (54: 2). 

The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed 
(54: 10). 

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper 
(54:17). 

Without money and without price (55: 1). 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts (55: 8). 

Like the troubled sea (57:20). 

Make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteous- 
ness (60: 17). 

The oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise 
for the spirit of heaviness (6l : 3). 

The garments of salvation (61 : 10). 

Beulah land (62: 4). 

Mighty to save (63: 1). 

Trodden the winepress alone (63:3). 



170 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 



Rend the heavens and come down (64: 1). 

We all do fade as a leaf (64: 6). 

I am holier than thou (65 : 5). 

The God of truth (65: 16). 

Shall not labor in vain (65 : 23). 

A nation shall be born in a day (66: 8). 

Peace like a river (66: 12). 

Their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be 
quenched (66: 24). 



INDEX 



Roman Numerals refer to Studies ; Italics to authors cited. 



Ahaz .... 
Ambrose 
Apocalypse 

Arabia .... 
Aristocracy, sins of 
"Ascension of Isaiah" . 
Assyria 

Atonement, day of 
Augustine 

Babylon 

Barnes .... 
B en-Sir ach 
Bribery denounced 
"Burdens" 
Burke .... 
Byron .... 

Cheyne .... 
Chronology of prophecies 
Chronological chart 
Chronological table 
Cobb . . 
Commentaries on Isaiah 
Cornill .... 
Critical problem, see Isaiah 
Cyrus .... 

Damascus 
Davidson 

Defiance of Jehovah 
Delitzsch 

"Destruction of Sennacherib" 



38, 79, 83 
15 

99, 105 
93 
72 
24 

53, 114, 121 
. 151 
15 

89, 137 
65 
66 
74 
VIII 
15 

. 123 



51, 59, 64, 89 
. IV 

36 
44 
65, 89 
24 
64 

. XII 

91 

14, 59, 136, 147 
73 

21, 64, 90, 104, 114, 147, 156 

122 



172 INDEX 

Dillmann 23, 135 

"Disciples" of Isaiah . 20 

Dissipation denounced 73 

Doderlein ......... 64 

Douglas ......... 65 

Driver 23, 59, 64 

Drummond . . . • . . . . . 154 

Drunkenness . . . . . . 74, 109 

Duhm 13, 59, 64 

Earthquake 20 

Edom . . 93, 155 

Egypt 92 

Egyptian party . . . . . . . .112 

Eichhorn ......... 64 

Eliakim 95 

Ethiopia 96 

Ewald .......... 64 

Exile 131 

Foreign alliances 71, 94, 109 

Forgiveness of Jehovah ....... 135 

Formalism in religion . . . . . . .110 

Gehenna ......... 158 

Gesenius ......... 64 

Greed denounced 73 

Green .......... 65 

Grey .......... 64 

Guthe 51, 64 

Hackmann ........ 59, 64 

Handel . .146 

Hezekiah 24, 39, 41, XI 

"Holy One of Israel" 14 

Holy Spirit 156 

Hoshea 39 

Hypocrisy ......... 73 



INDEX 



173 



"Immanuel" 80 

Isaiah: Life and Character, I; Period of, III; Name, 19; 

Sons, 19; Wife, 20; Literary Genius, 23; Martyrdom, 

23 

Isaiah, Book of: Analysis, II; Chronology, IV; Critical 



Problem, V; Unity of 14, 55 

Jerome .......... 23 

Jotham 37 

Justin Martyr ........ 24 

Kirkpatrick ......... 59 

Konig .......... 59 

Koppe .......... 64 

Lachish ........ 42, 120 

Lagarde ......... 13 

Maher-shalal-hash-baz 19, 81 

Manasseh ......... 24 

Marti 13, 60, 64 

Masses, sins of the ....... 74 

Menahem ........ .37 

Merodach-Baladan 40, 126 

Mishna 24 

Moab 90 

Neio Century Bible ....... 13 

Oehler . 149 

Orelli . . . . 145 

Pekah 38, 79 

Philip 148 

Philistia 91 

Political conceit ........ 73 

Political entanglements ....... VII 

Prediction . 132 

Prophecy or apocalypse ...... 99 

Pul 37 



174 



INDEX 



Rabshakeh . . 42, 120 

Resurrection . . . . 102 

Return from exile . . . . . . . 84, 153 

Review questions XV 

Rezin 38, 79 

Rosenmiiller ......... 64 

Sabbath observance 151 

Salvation by faith 14 

Samaria, fall of . . . . . . 40, 53 

Sargon II . 40, 52, 91, 120 

Sennacherib 41, 43, 54, 120 

"Servant of Jehovah" 133, XIII 

Shalmaneser IV 39, 91 

Shear-jashub 19, 79 

Shebna 95 

Shiloh 81 

Skinner 59, 146 

Smith, G. A. . 59, 64, 70, 119, 148 

Social sins of Judah VI 

Songs of the redeemed ....... 101 

Sturgeon 146 

Stade . . . 64 

Strachey ......... 65 

Sun-dials 124 

Syro-Ephraimitic War . 38, 49, 79 

Texts, great, of Isaiah ....... 33 

Thirtle 65 

Tiglath-pileser III 37, 91 

Tirhakah 42 

Trypho 24 

Tyre 95 

Unbelief denounced ....... 75 

Unity of Isaiah, see Isaiah 

Uzziah .......... 35 



INDEX 175 

Vineyard of Jehovah 73, 103 

Valeton 22 

Vos 65 

War, sin of 70 

Whitehouse 24, 59 

Winckler 51, 89 

"Woes" 74, 109 

Women, frivolous 72 

Zion triumphant ,,.,«,•• 157 



APR 221910 



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Q 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



